Category: Development

It’s no secret the tech field is dominated by men. Even though women now make up roughly 46 percent of the workforce, they only hold 24 percent of computer science jobs and about 11 percent of executive-level jobs in Silicon Valley. Of the women who do make it into Silicon Valley, they make 61 percent less than their male counterparts. That evens out to an average of over $16,000 less per year.

There is no direct reason for the gender discrepancy; however, speculation largely lends itself to the rise of the “male tech geniuses” like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs whose overpowering success overshadowed females in the field. Additionally, women are viewed as too emotional and face the problem of pregnancy bias that men do not.

When a man fails or makes a mistake at work, they are allowed the opportunity to explain themselves and fix their mistake. The same can not be said for women. When high-powered women make a mistake, they are met with a much higher level of scrutiny. Their failings are seen as a reason they shouldn’t lead rather than a simple misstep.

How do women actually stack up?

Although women are not as prevalent as men in the tech industry, that’s not due to lack of skill. On the contrary, female-powered companies have historically performed 3 times better and generated 12 percent higher revenue than those led by men.

Furthermore, in a GitHub study, code written by women was actually accepted 4 percent more often than code written by men. The catch? The coder’s genders were not disclosed prior to the acceptance of their code. Women in the study were in fact, better coders, but only when the judges were unaware they were women.

What is the effect on women?

The turnover rate is more than twice as high for women as it is for men. 41 percent of Women in tech are leaving their jobs as opposed to 17 percent of men. Of those women, 56 percent leave in the middle of their careers; 24 percent of whom leave the tech field completely, 20 percent leave the workforce altogether.

Why? Most often it’s because 30 percent of women over 35 still hold junior level positions while they see their male colleagues moving up around them. Rather than stay in unfulfilling jobs they will never advance in, women choose to leave in search of fulfillment elsewhere.

What are companies doing for women in tech?

Diversity initiatives

Many companies are dedicating time and money to work on diversity initiatives. Though only the companies who are truly diverse tend to be the ones who report, they’ve proven organizations with a more diverse workforce perform better. But that’s not all. High-diversity businesses also have more satisfied workers and a leg up on the competition.

Pinterest has one of the most diverse executive teams at the moment; however that number is only about 8 percent. Google also has higher numbers than the national average with a 30 percent female workforce but that number is still much lower than men. Tech companies are putting in the effort to catch up, but still, have a long way to go in diversifying their teams.

Reducing pregnancy bias

Pregnancy, maternity leave, and motherhood seem to be the largest biases against females in the workforce, especially in the tech industry. The United States is one of the only countries that does not require paid parental leave for businesses. As a result, many women are forced to choose between their careers and their children and leave the workforce. Some companies though, are making a point of actively combatting that.

For example, Netflix provides unlimited paid parental leave for a year following childbirth or adoption. Tech giants Google and YouTube give new mothers 18 weeks of paid leave while also give families $500 to invest in the stock market for their children.

Women still only account for about a quarter of the workforce in the tech field and are often overlooked. However, they have proven to be just as successful as, if not more successful than, their male counterparts. Though the tech industry has a long way to go before bridging the gender gap, they are slowly adapting practices to get there.

 

A big thanks to Amanda Peterson, to writing and submitting this piece to us.

Learning and development (L&D) departments are constantly working on identifying new opportunities for employees. Thanks to the new emerging technologies and software solutions, such as LMS and LXP software (you can view a comparison of LMS vs LXP here), all professional growth and development efforts can be streamlined now.

Since there is a lot of buzz around corporate training software, and online training in general, but very few resources that go in-depth, giving organizations reasons to implement it, we decided to give you exactly that.

Here is why you should deploy online training in your organization.

Cut Down Training Expenses

You are probably aware of the high costs of traditional training. First, there are physical copies of all the learning materials, then you have to deal with trainer’s fee, and not to mention the price of the certifications everyone expects to get by the end of the course.

In some instances, you will also have to rent the space for training. Online training removes all these factors from the equation. All the materials are stored online so that anybody can access them. There is no need to rent any space, as learners can study from wherever they want and the certification is in digital form. Your employee can choose whether they want to print their certificates or not.

Make Training More Convenient

When it comes to training, you have to go the extra mile to make it convenient for the workers. Keep in mind that most of them work from 9 to 5 and having to go to training after they are done with their work might be overwhelming for most of them.

If you decide to take another course of action and organize training during weekends, your employees may feel like you’ve robbed them of their free time.

This is where cloud-based LMS software comes in as a true savior. All of the courses can be stored in the cloud and your employees can access them whenever they want. For instance, they can do a short quiz on a coffee break, finish a course chapter while commuting, and so on.

True Mobility

The online training has gone through some transitions along the way. Improvements have been made to make learning as easy as possible.

Just a few years ago, learners had to log in an LMS via a desktop computer only. Today the connectivity and accessibility issues are definitely resolved.

Your employees will be able to learn whenever they have Internet access. And since we live in a mobile era, you will be happy to know that the best LMS software tools on the market are completely mobile-friendly. This means that learners can access learning materials, take tests, and communicate on the go.

Save Time and Effort

In a traditional setting, both learning and exams take a lot of time and effort. If there is someone who doesn’t understand the lecture, they might interrupt the presentation to ask questions, thus taking a portion of the time reserved for training. Not to mention the unit tests that have to be graded after any exam.

You will be happy to know that all this is automated by the corporate training software. You can leverage the automated corrections so that trainees can go back to read that specific material again and give the right answer.

The grading is automatic and the reports are immediately generated and sent to the manager.

Better Knowledge Retention

LMS software is also designed to improve knowledge retention. It supports the use of all sorts of media to increase the engagement potential of the learning material.

You can use images, animations, videos, and gamification to make it easier for trainees to learn.

Furthermore, corporate training software can be used to engage trainees in solving real-life situations. This can help them live the experience and learn in a better way.

Learning by participating in real-life scenarios is a great way to nurture employees for more demanding positions.

Progress Report on Demand

In a traditional setting, it is impossible to assess the performance of training and trainees. At least not in terms of objectivity. With online training, assessments are made easy.

You can see the reports at any time – how many participants are there, how much time each one of them has spent learning, and the average score of each individual.

You can use these reports to identify the learning material that’s causing problems to trainees. Whether it is too complex or too boring, you will be able to pinpoint it and improve it.

Streamlined Communication

Corporate learning software comes with a brand new line of communication. In fact, several of them do so. Course creators and trainees can communicate via message boards or direct private messaging. There is no need to stop the lecture to answer a question.

New enrollees can communicate both with trainers and among themselves. Streamlined communication improves efficiency and affects knowledge retention as well.

Individualized Training Paths

Creating individualized training paths for each employee is borderline impossible in traditional training. The main reasons are cost and time.

On the other hand, doing it with LMS software is easy. How? Modern LMS solutions come with Tin Can specification that tracks, records, and stores every learning effort made by an enrollee in the form of statements.

In just a couple of days, you will be able to gauge the reports and see the personal growth and development levels of all your employees.

Wrap Up

Deploying online training in your organization will help you reduce training costs, make it more efficient, and improve knowledge retention, among other things. Since the success of your online training efforts depends on the quality of LMS software, we suggest that you dig a little deeper to identify the best software for your company.

What keeps a business on its track? Many would say a good strategy. This strategy encompasses all the areas of your business, including the marketing aspect. And in the age of modern technology, a good marketing strategy is more important than ever.

If you want your business to grow and innovate, having a good strategy that you can integrate into your marketing campaign is a step in the right direction. The people behind SerpWatch have underlined the importance of a powerful marketing strategy in the infographic below.

The infographic presents the hottest statistics and trends that define the digital landscape today. Keeping an eye on these ensures that your marketing strategy will remain effective in 2019. Here are some of the important points you should remember before formulating your marketing campaign.

Local SEO

Having a general SEO strategy is great, but you should also focus on growing your local customer base. Stats say that over 40% of business revenue is driven by organic traffic. This means you need to rank in search engine results pages to gain more exposure which, in turn, can increase your leads.

But while general SEO is hugely beneficial, it also makes sense for you to give more attention to your local SEO in case you run a local business.

Many consumers go online to search for a company or store near them. In fact, 72% of those who do a local search end up visiting a store within five miles. What’s more, 28% of customers searching for a local business make a purchase.

That said, improving your local SEO ranking could help you build a strong relationship with customers who are within your business location.

PPC vs. Organic Traffic

Paid online advertising has been growing by the minute, but it must be used with caution. Studies show that 64.6% of people click on Google ads when they are looking to buy an item online. This means that they already have the intention to buy when they conduct a search.

But what if a person is looking for information and weighing options? The statistics are just as damning. For one, 80% of people ignore paid search results and opt to click on the organic listings instead.

Ads on mobile devices tell the same story, where 70% of respondents admitted to disliking mobile ads. There is also a significant increase, around 90%, in mobile ad blocking.

What does this mean to businesses? Paid advertising across different online platforms could help your campaign, but you should also make sure to weigh its pros and cons. Will it do more harm than good?

Content is King

Content marketing still holds an established place in any marketing strategy, whether it is on your website, social pages, or through emails. Producing valuable and relevant content across all your marketing channels can cement your credibility and authority in your niche.

Content marketing gets three times more leads than the paid search. Buyers have become more discerning, with 47% of them consulting 3-5 pieces of content before engaging with a sales representative.

There are many more trends that you need to consider when you start creating your digital marketing campaign this year. Take a look at the infographic below to get started.

Travel apps are on the boom, no divergent ways to the fact. Development companies and the clients are making a handsome revenue from it. But, bringing similar apps in the market to make money for yourself is not how you can proceed further. You will have to offer something extra, something unique, to stand a chance among the big and established players of the Google play store and apple app store.

Here are some of the top features offered by different travel apps. If you are considering travel app development, a combo of all of these won’t be a bad idea.

1. Geolocation

The basic thing any traveler checks after reaching the destination is nearby places to stay or cafes to eat or places to visit. Don’t give them any teeny weeny chance to drop your app and use some other one to get all these information they desired. For that location, geolocation feature is what you must have. The user can run any location-based search and fetch the results very quickly.

2. Weather Forecast

There are a whole bunch of people planning their entire trip without taking weather changes into consideration. A bad climate can alter the trip, like a flight delay or even worse flight getting canceled. So, include weather forecast feature into your travel app which can send weather predictions, any nearby calamity or any such events to the user.

3. Cab Booking

Right after landing, the first thing any user will be looking for is a cab. So, don’t give the user any reason to slip from your app. Give them the taxi booking feature and get them to their location.

4. Price Comparison

Your app would not be the only one they would be using, there will be 2 to 3 more to get the best out of all. So, give them that detail as well. Show them the price comparison of different flights, hotels and other things offered by different apps right on your app.

5. Offline Access

The bad network is a common problem and it can follow you anywhere. This can be a disaster for the users but not if you let them use your app even in offline mode.

6. Language Translator

Language can be a lot of trouble if not handled well. Communication in a different country can create issues but not if you avail a language translator feature in your travel app.

Something Out Of The Box

While traveling, hotel booking can cost a fortune. Those looking for low budget travel ideas, here’s one, “HolidaySwap”. This idea of a travel app is really out of the box. The app owner James Asquith holds the record for being the youngest person to visit every country of the world. The concept of this app is to provide stay at just $1 per night. He brought back the trend of barter. The users of the app can exchange their homes at distant locations. If you are staying in Australia and want a home in the US, find any US person looking to stay in Australia, and swap homes with each other. Isn’t the idea fascinating? So, something like this can help you create your own space in the app market.

Another such concept is Preparture. While visiting an entirely new nation, you might know the routes which is quite blatant. Now Preparture not only shows the routes to the locations you feed but creates a whole route itself. Say for example you are want to grab a bite at XYZ restaurant, you want to withdraw money from the ATM, you want to visit the local mall of the area. You feed all these destinations in the app and it will plan the route based on which location is near and what task you should complete first, where you should head next, and where should your journey end. It is your one-stop travel planner app.

So, I guess now you know if really want to top the app store charts, you will need something never thought before or never done before.

Author Bio

I am Pratik Kanada, founder & CEO of 360 Degree Technosoft, an iPhone and Android app development company which makes app ideas into reality by providing unique design and development services across the globe. To keep up with the trend, I have also laid steps into React native and ionic app development. I generally write blogs on mobile technology, app development, and app marketing.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pratik-kanada-31793020/edit/photo-opt-out/

Video content has become one of the most, if not the most, influential mediums on the internet. Long gone are the days where you would visit a website and find only text posts. Nowadays, everyone wants to get in on the craze of video content. The best part is that search engines have taken a liking to videos just as much as users have. With this in mind, you need to take some steps to ensure that your video will be at the top of searches everywhere.

1. Bring quality instead of quantity

The quality of a good video is what keeps viewers coming back. On YouTube, for example, the most viewed videos are those with the most effort put into them. You need to start with the basics. For starters, come up with a good premise for the video, the main theme can’t be any topic that comes to mind, it has to have a purpose. Good video quality shouldn’t be disregarded. In the age of 4K video streaming, you want to be ahead of the curb. Don’t forget about audio, either. The audio in your video should be crisp and easy to comprehend.

Driving more views and clicks to your site will require some quality content in your video. There’s no reason to go overboard and spend months on a single video. Quality over quantity is the name of the game, but don’t exclude quantity from the equation. If you have a particularly brilliant idea that can lead to a complex and long video, try splitting it into several parts. Viewers aren’t patient when it comes to waiting for videos so your content has to come out at least semi-regularly. This way it will constantly be searched and it will bring in traffic.

2. Don’t neglect social media

People are constantly talking about the influence of social media on the newer generations. The truth is that social media has an effect on everyone, not just the younger crowd. Hosting videos on social media platforms are possibly the best way to spread them across the internet. Sites like Twitter and Facebook are itching for those videos with attractive content. Facebook has started optimizing its model to better fit videos because they are preferable to photos. They are easy to share and the users do the job for you.

In order to maximize the number of clicks and shares you get from a video, it has to appeal to a broad audience on these social networks. Viral videos are what you should strive for. Social media sites are like marketing machines, if you put something good in, it’ll basically share itself. Major brands have begun investing in live videos as well. There’s something about their spontaneity that attracts users and they might not feel like it’s as much of a timewaster as a fixed video.

3. Integration is key

When it comes to making quality content, blogs have always ruled supreme. Text posts aren’t a thing of the past just yet, they’re still going strong. With video marketing on the rise, it might be a good idea to create complementary content that connects to blog posts. There’s no reason you can’t integrate a specific video that has a similar topic on your blog. This will be key in helping your content better get across to viewers. Some subtext is given by the blog post and then the video provides the heart of the content. Readers love getting a different dimension and perspective while reading a blog post.

Bridging different topics with blogs and videos is great for spreading content as well. You can adjust your blog post to match the topic of your video so it becomes much easier to share. This way, not only do you optimize the user experience, but you also get an easier medium to share your videos in. For example, say you want to share a video game review article. Making a review video to match would not only attract more users, but it would also give attention to your video channel. Either way, you can’t lose by making both.

4. Pick the right thumbnail

They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but this doesn’t really hold up on the internet. Most people will give your video a casual glance before deciding to click it, which is why it’s important that the glance shows them exactly what they want to see. There is a near-infinite number of videos online and people simply do not have the time to check each and every single one of them. The thumbnail is going to make or break the popularity of your video.

To create an engaging thumbnail, you need to think about a couple of things. First of all, it has to stand out. Make sure it doesn’t get lost in the sea of other video thumbnails. After that, you have to decide which frame of the video represents the content of the video best. It should be an impactful moment that shows the gist of the content, without being too chaotic. Alternatively, you could just add an image that isn’t actually from the video but still represents the point accurately.

5. Focus on titles

As with anything that you share on the internet, the title is an extremely important detail. It’s the main way to find your content. This might be even more important for video content since there’s no matching text that could be used to identify what the video topic is about. In order to get people to the page, your video is in, you’re going to need a proper keyword in the title. There’s nothing more important for Search Engine Optimisation than picking the right keyword. Think of what your video represents and try to find the right word or words that would describe it best.

Search engines like Google need something to start with in order to show your video as a search result. It would be ideal if your video also had an accompanying description below it. This way you can add some more details that signal what it’s about. Don’t overdo the keywords, search engines might penalize you for it.

6. The right host

Search engines really like pages that have a fast load speed. Nobody likes waiting for something to load on their website. Unfortunately, integrating things like videos on your page could potentially slow down your blog page or wherever you host your video. There is also quite a difference between hosting your video on a site like YouTube or its alternatives.

Picking the right host could mean the difference between a quick page load and a page load that search engines recognize as slow. Make sure you test out your website on page load speed test applications before going live.

Conclusion

Platforms like YouTube have made creating video content easy and affordable. No business should go without at least one interesting video on their website. It’s a huge boost to visitors and you’ll find that search engines like Google will adore you for it. Just make sure you create unique content that caters to the masses and you won’t have to worry about your website not receiving traffic.