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Hired ranked companies winning top tech talent amid the current worker shortage. (Yan Krukov/Pexels)
Tech companies in Austin are winning top talent, according to a new ranking list by job search company Hired.
The company based the ranking on three factors for attracting and retaining employees: equity, efficiency and transparency. These factors went into Hired’s data analysis from October 2020 to the end of October 2021 to gauge whether workplaces are interviewing underrepresented candidates, navigating them through the hiring process and being open about salary.
These considerations are key to keeping workers, Hired says, as tech has also been affected by the Great Resignation, the trend of record quits across industries in recent months. Hired describes a tech worker shortage that may only deepen, with an October survey indicating 72% of tech employees considered quitting their jobs in the next 12 months. As pandemic restrictions eased, workloads increased, causing tech workers to undergo long hours and burnout.
Hired’s ranking highlights these Austin-connected enterprise companies that are using best practices for finding and keeping workers:
No. 2 Maximus
Founded in 1975, the highest-rated company with Austin ties is Maximus. The government services company that helps connect citizens to programs such as Medicaid and Medicare came close to the top ranking, just behind Insider. The company performed well in all key areas, but especially with transparency. The company is also looking to grow in Austin, with jobs for analysts, network technicians and outreach currently open.
No. 5 Accenture
Accenture's office at the McKean-Eilers Building. (Google Street View)
This Fortune Global 500 company made the top five enterprise businesses. Involved in information technology services and consulting, the company showed Hired deep value for equity and transparency across the board, including at the Austin locations, with one downtown and another on South Congress. It is currently hiring a customer care associate, a writer/editor and an analyst.
No. 6 Sysco LABS
Austin-founded Sysco LABS wins top tech talent. (Sysco LABS/LinkedIn)
The computer software company with a downtown Austin office aims to transform traditional food service through its platforms that aids in placing and delivering orders. It currently has openings for data scientist, product designer, data engineer and more.
No. 7 Meta
Facebook has grown in Austin since starting its presence more than a decade ago. (Facebook Austin)
Facebook, now doing business as Meta, has been in Austin since 2010 and has grown to more than 1,200 Austin employees. While Hired’s ranking centered on the hiring process, workers at Meta enjoy some perks once they’re brought on that could help with satisfaction like Austin workers who have access to three full-service kitchens, free laundry, a shipping center, a fitness center and a rec room. It is currently hiring for various software engineering jobs.
No. 9 Cisco Systems
Cisco lit up their offices around the world with purple to show support for their workers with disabilities. (Cisco/LinkedIn)
Headquartered in San Jose, California, Cisco is a multinational tech conglomerate that’s been growing since the early 80s. Its work developing and manufacturing software and telecommunications equipment eventually came to Austin with an office at Research Park, and Hired scored them especially high on efficiency in the hiring process. It is currently hiring in various areas including product development, data analyst and customer service.
No. 10 Capital One
Capital One makes hires for cyber security. (Capital One/LinkedIn)
Tying with Wayfair, Capital One still made the ranking of top 10 enterprise businesses. The company is currently looking for talent in Austin, with openings such as account associate, client manager and bank teller.
No. 10 Wayfair
Wayfair announced an Austin expansion in April this year. (Whoisjohngalt/CC)
This e-commerce company that sells furniture and home goods is headquartered in Boston but made plans to come to Austin earlier this year with up to 200 hires. In April, the company said it expected the office to open within the next year, and had positions open for software engineers, infrastructure engineers, product managers, experience designers, analysts and data scientists.
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Popular
(Paxton Smith/Instagram)
Paxton Smith’s 2021 valedictory speech at Lake Highlands High School in Dallas wasn’t the same speech she had previously shared with school administrators. She dropped the approved speech and made a case for women’s reproductive rights after lawmakers passed the Texas "Heartbeat Bill.”
Her advocacy made news on NPR, YouTubeTV and in The Guardian. Just over a year later, the “war on (women’s) rights” she forewarned has come to a head as the U.S. Supreme Court voted Friday morning to overturn Roe v. Wade, ending constitutional protection for abortion access.
“It is up to the people to show up and show the courts and the politicians that we won’t sit back and let this happen,” Smith told Austonia Friday morning. “We will show up, we will fight back. Before, we were scared of them, now they should be scared of us.”
Now a University of Texas sophomore and abortion rights activist, 19-year-old Smith said she wanted to give the same speech in the “the most public way possible” to reach “as many people as possible who don't agree that I deserve this right.”
However, she says the response was “actually overwhelmingly positive” and supportive of her cause. According to a recent UT poll, 78% of Texas voters support abortion access in most cases.
The speech opened up further opportunities for activism: she advocated for reproductive rights at the International Forum on Human Rights in Geneva, interviewed with Variety magazine and spoke to tens of thousands at Austin’s Bans Off Our Bodies protest at the Texas Capitol in May.
Smith also serves on the board of directors for the Women’s Reproductive Rights Assistance Project, a national nonprofit organization that helps fund abortions or medication abortion—like Plan C pills—in all 50 states. Most recently, Smith has been attending protests in Washington, D.C. leading up to the ruling.
“This is land of the free. This is where you get to choose how you live your life,” Smith said. “Overturning Roe v. Wade violates everything that we have come to believe about what it means to live in this country. I think a lot of people aren't willing to accept that this is a human right that is most likely just going to be gone for over half of the country within the next couple of weeks.”
Bracing for the next steps, Smith gave some tips for supporters:
- Find a protest to attend.
- “I would say invite somebody to go to those protests with you, invite a couple of friends, invite people into the movement,” Smith said.
- Talk about the issue on social media—use the platform you have.
- “Have these kinds of conversations where people can just talk about their fears and then find ways to go and advocate for yourself,” Smith said.
- Volunteer at a nonprofit near you.
“I feel like a lot of the reason things have gotten as bad as they have within the abortion rights world is that people are not making a scene, not protesting, not putting the effort into ensuring that the government doesn't take away this right,” Smith said. “I want to emphasize that if you're not doing anything, don't expect the best scenario, expect the worst because that's the direction that we're going in.”
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(Council Member Chito Vela/Twitter)
The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that guaranteed a constitutional right to an abortion, Friday morning. Moments later, Austin City Council set a special meeting for next month to pass a resolution aimed at decriminalizing abortion.
The GRACE Act, which stands for guarding the right to abortion care for everyone, is a twofold plan submitted by council member Jose “Chito” Vela. It recommends that city funds shouldn’t be used to surveil, catalog, report or investigate abortions. It also recommends that police make investigating abortion their lowest priority.
Council Member Vanessa Fuentes, who co-sponsored the resolution along with council members Paige Ellis, Kathie Tovo and Mayor Steve Adler, said the importance of the GRACE Act cannot be overstated.
“By introducing this resolution during a special session, City Council is doubling down on fighting back for reproductive health,” Fuentes said. “Items like the GRACE Act will promote essential healthcare while enabling individuals to exercise their bodily freedom.”
The act takes an approach similar to when former council member Greg Casar moved to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana. Ultimately, state law doesn't allow city officials to order police chiefs to adopt specific enforcement policies so the resolution would be a request to Police Chief Joe Chacon. In May, Politico reported that Vela is having "ongoing conversations" with Chacon about the proposal.
Austonia contacted Attorney General Ken Paxton for comment on the GRACE Act but did not hear back by time of publication. On Friday, Paxton celebrated the overturning of Roe and announced an annual office holiday on June 24 in recognition of the high court's decision.
In a press release, Vela said the Texas state government has a history of overturning municipal protections of human rights. Thirty days after the Supreme Court’s ruling, Texas will ban all abortions, with exceptions only to save the life of a pregnant patient or prevent “substantial impairment of major bodily function.”
Still, Vela expressed hope for the GRACE Act’s longevity. Council’s special meeting on it is set for the week of July 18.
“We know this resolution is legally sound, and Austin is not alone in this fight,” Vela said. “We are working with several other cities who are equally horrified by the prospect of an abortion ban and want to do everything they can to protect their residents.”
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