Best Blogs of December

Our Best Blogs of December post includes stories on keeping laptops out of the classroom, paying more for tech talent in 2018 and which fringe benefits companies should be offering to attract talent. That’s a lot of great stuff to read between shopping runs to the mall!

Banning the laptop from lectures (and meetings)

If it’s been awhile since you last set foot in a college lecture hall, here’s an update – everyone has their laptops open for the entire class.

These laptops might make it convenient to record a lecture and take notes at the same time, but more and more evidence suggests that college students learn less whenever they use laptops or tablets in a lecture hall. Laptop users also have a tendency to earn worse grades, as they can distract both the users themselves and those around them.

In one study, students were randomly assigned either a laptop or pen and paper to take lecture notes. Participants who used a laptop tended to perform worse on a standardized test that covered topics from the lecture than their analog counterparts.

For working professionals, the lesson here is that laptops could also hurt productivity in meetings. Companies concerned about a lack of productivity may want to consider banning laptops from all company meetings.

Read the whole story here.

Companies will pay more for IT talent next year

With the labor market the way it is and an ongoing STEM crisis, it’s safe to say proactive companies have already grabbed most of the available IT talent out there. Therefore, companies that have lagged behind in the tech talent arms race are going to have to pay more to catch up, according to a recent report from research firm Forrester.

In addition to using higher salary offers, companies in need of specialized roles will have to adjust how they approach everything from recruitment to workplace culture in order to get the talent they need.

The new Forrester report also said 30 percent of companies will have declines in customer experience, while 10 percent of companies will enjoy profits as a result of cybersecurity investments.

Read the whole story here.

Which perks are worth offering?

Silicon Valley companies generate a lot of headlines with the employee perks they offer. From foosball tables to allowing dogs at work, some companies are going the extra mile to make the workplace more relaxed and inviting.

From an employer’s point-of-view, it’s important to consider which of these perks actually results in attracting the best talent. Tech company Textio recently analyzed the performance of 75 different benefits pulled from more than 300 million job posts to determine what fringe benefits actually bring in IT job seekers and accelerate hiring time.

Textio found that some of the more flamboyant benefits, like onsite massages, don’t actually result in better hiring metrics. The company found caregiver leave, adoption leave, on-site gyms, performance-based incentives and family leave were the five biggest difference makers when it came to attracting and hiring IT talent.

Read the whole story here.