{"id":10677,"date":"2020-10-15T20:40:42","date_gmt":"2020-10-16T03:40:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=10677"},"modified":"2020-10-15T20:40:42","modified_gmt":"2020-10-16T03:40:42","slug":"tech-employers-talk-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=10677","title":{"rendered":"Tech Employers Talk Back"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"HG<\/a>

HG Insights’ Elizabeth Cholawsky, photo by Daniel Dreifuss for Santa Barbara Independent.<\/p><\/div>\n

As Santa Barbara\u2019s tech sector continues to grow and\u00a0evolve, so do the challenges and opportunities presented\u00a0here. I asked a bunch of industry leaders for\u00a0their observations, and what follows is a snapshot\u00a0of what\u2019s going on today.<\/p>\n

ATTRACTING TALENT IS EASIER:<\/strong> A common complaint is\u00a0that it\u2019s hard to attract employees here compared to larger\u00a0markets like Silicon Valley. \u201cThere\u2019s a little bit of truth to\u00a0that\u2014you generally have a bigger pool\u2014but you also\u00a0don\u2019t have the extreme competition and somewhat lack\u00a0of loyalty of employees in that market,\u201d said Elizabeth\u00a0Cholawsky<\/a>, president and CEO of HG Insights<\/a>. \u201cThere\u2019s a\u00a0lot more turnover of employees in the Bay Area.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the former CEO of the Sunnyvale-based Support.com<\/a>, Cholawsky said the challenges of attracting top\u00a0talent are offset by advantages. \u201cIt is a small community,\u00a0so people that aren\u2019t at the top of their game often\u00a0don\u2019t survive in Santa Barbara because everybody knows\u00a0everybody and experiences get shared pretty openly,\u201d\u00a0she said. \u201cThe cream of the crop rises in Santa Barbara\u00a0because a lot of people want to stay here because it\u2019s such\u00a0a beautiful place to live. So you do your best to do your\u00a0best, and if you\u2019re not, it gets weeded out by the fact that\u00a0we\u2019ve got a tight-knit community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others appreciate that advantage as well. \u201cSanta Barbara\u00a0is very underrated in terms of its ability to offer\u00a0a challenging and a healthy tech environment, maybe\u00a0without some of the rat-race elements that Silicon Valley\u00a0has become,\u201d said Mike Muench<\/a>, CEO and president of\u00a0Seek Thermal<\/a>, who worked in Silicon Valley while a VP\u00a0for Apple<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019ve talked to a number of transplants from\u00a0Silicon Valley at the executive or professional level, and,\u00a0almost without exception, they\u2019ve felt the same way:\u00a0Why didn\u2019t I do this 10 years ago? This still gives me all\u00a0the technical and professional challenges that I need,\u00a0but from a lifestyle tradeoff, it\u2019s a lot more balanced and\u00a0healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

LONGER TENURES:<\/strong> \u201cPeople who join the company tend\u00a0to stay in the company longer, which is nice,\u201d said ParentSquare<\/a>\u00a0cofounder Anupama Vaid<\/a>. \u201cIn the Bay Area,\u00a0the churn is so high.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having been a VP of the Leaf Group<\/a> in Santa Monica,\u00a0Entrada Ventures<\/a>\u2019 operating partner Julie Henley McNamara<\/a>\u00a0agrees. \u201cThere\u2019s a real sense of loyalty here,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u201cYou\u2019re not stressed when you get to the office because\u00a0there wasn\u2019t a lot of rigmarole to get there. From Carpinteria\u00a0to Goleta, there is traffic, but nothing like the Bay\u00a0Area or L.A.\u201d<\/p>\n

WORK-LIFE BALANCE:<\/strong> \u201cSanta Barbara, especially in the\u00a0day and age of COVID, offers a great quality of life and\u00a0a growing, thriving, tight-knit community,\u201d said Amy\u00a0Meyer<\/a>, Chief People Officer at AppFolio<\/a>. \u201cThere are a lot of\u00a0interconnections, just a couple degrees of separation, and the\u00a0Santa Barbara community has a lot to offer. We also do a lot of\u00a0work in the community\u2014giving back through our employee driven\u00a0give-back program.\u201d<\/p>\n

ParentSquare\u2019s employees have access to Gold\u2019s Gym<\/a> just\u00a0downstairs, explained Vaid, \u201cand our Christmas parties and\u00a0our annual get-togethers are always something outdoorsy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nathan Ziv<\/a> of Invoca<\/a> said that their employees did a lot\u00a0of team hikes prior to COVID, and that he often will take an\u00a0employee out for a one-on-one meeting by walking to Stearns\u00a0Wharf<\/a>, just a few blocks from their office at the bottom of State\u00a0Street. \u201cWhen surf is good, go take a longer lunch and get in\u00a0the water and then come back,\u201d he said. \u201cAfter that, you can do\u00a0meetings and whatnot. I don\u2019t think you can do that as easily\u00a0in a big city.\u201d<\/p>\n

COMMUNITY COLLABORATION:<\/strong> The tech community\u2019s interconnectedness\u00a0is in part due to its relatively small size, but there\u2019s\u00a0also a concerted effort on the part of leaders to work together.<\/p>\n

As the COVID pandemic began, Meyer from AppFolio helped\u00a0create a forum for HR leaders in the tri-county area. \u201cThere\u2019s\u00a0about 15 to 20 of us from various tech companies that meet\u00a0every couple of weeks, specifically to share best practices and\u00a0what\u2019s working and what\u2019s not in navigating COVID and how\u00a0to support employees through that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Henry Ventura<\/a>, who manages diversity, inclusion, and\u00a0equal employment for the County of Santa Barbara<\/a>, is spearheading\u00a0a Diversity Roundtable coalition with a diverse group\u00a0of companies. That includes leaders from Amazon\u2019s Alexa\u00a0branch on State Street<\/a>, MarBorg<\/a>, Deckers Brands<\/a>, Just Communities<\/a>,\u00a0Invoca, Sonos<\/a>, and Procore<\/a>, among others, to promote\u00a0equitable practices in the workplace.<\/p>\n

COST OF HOUSING:<\/strong> The cost of living is \u201cdefinitely a challenge,\u201d\u00a0said Meyer. \u201cIn light of living in a pandemic, people are now\u00a0more than ever choosing where they want to live and having\u00a0more flexibility. It\u2019s going to get easier in some respects to\u00a0recruit and to attract people to Santa Barbara because of that\u00a0quality of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

CONTINUED EVOLUTION:<\/strong> Success will only create more opportunity,\u00a0as Meyer explained, \u201cOften, companies are headquartered\u00a0wherever the founder lives.\u201d But she believes the biggest\u00a0continued growth will be thanks to UCSB\u2019s established tech\u00a0ecosystem and a growing talent pool from Westmont College<\/a>.<\/p>\n

She explained, \u201cBoth will continue to create the space for\u00a0entrepreneurial, innovative thinkers and draw them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tech<\/a>

Tech Talk Special Issue for Santa Barbara Independent, published October 1, 2020.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tech Talk Special Issue<\/a> for the Santa Barbara Independent<\/em><\/a>, originally published on October 1, 2020.<\/p>\n

To read the issue as it appeared in print, please click here, Tech Talk 768_10_01_20<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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