Scientists Believe The Chickens We Eat Are Being Slaughtered While Conscious

Roughly 9 billion chickens are slaughtered for food each year in the United States, and according to the poultry industry, each one of these sentient animals is mercifully stunned into unconsciousness before its neck is slit by an industrial blade.

But scientists have come to a far more ghastly conclusion. Their research shows that the method favored by U.S. poultry processors to stun the birds ― moving them through a vat of electrified water ― does not consistently render birds insensible before slaughter.

As a result, scientists say, an untold number of the chickens that we eat ― hundreds of millions of them and potentially many more ― likely experience intense suffering when they are slaughtered.

Brain activity indicates that these animals may be capable of experiencing pain first when they receive a paralyzing electric shock that induces tonic muscle seizures, then when their throats are forced against a sharpened blade. 

The extent of suffering is almost certainly vast. If just 1 percent of chickens raised each year in the U.S. are not effectively stunned, it means roughly 90 million animals are experiencing a violent and painful death. That’s more than the total number of dogs kept as pets in this country.

Unlike in Europe, there are virtually no U.S. regulations governing the humane slaughter of chickens. Nevertheless, following public pressure, the first major U.S. poultry producer, Perdue, pledged this year to phase out the use of electric water-baths.

Now animal protection groups are pressuring Perdue’s competitors, like Tyson Foods, and large U.S. food service companies, like Aramark, to follow suit.

Immobilized chickens are shown exiting an electric water-bath stunner. (Credit: U.S. Poultry and Egg Association)

Researchers say that a properly calibrated electric water-bath can reliably stun a large majority of birds that pass through it. But the devil is in the details.

Each water-bath has various electricity settings (for features like current, voltage, and frequency), and changes to these settings involve major trade-offs.

Using a lower-frequency charge increases the chance that a bird will be stunned, but it also raises the likelihood of damage to the bird’s carcass. Lower-frequency shocks can trigger more intense muscle seizures, sometimes causing fractured bones and ruptured blood vessels. The resulting meat can be too damaged or visually unappealing to sell.

As a result, and with no animal welfare regulations to guide them, U.S. poultry companies use electric water-bath settings aimed at producing the best quality meat, not ensuring that chickens are reliably stunned.

In other words, they use higher-frequency, lower-voltage shocks, which may leave birds paralyzed (so they can be easily whisked around the processing factory line) but not always unconscious, according to an extensive record of published studies that measured chickens’ brain activity after administering shocks at different settings. 

Immobilized chickens have their throats cut by an industrial blade. Scientists believe many of them are conscious as it happens. (Credit: U.S. Poultry and Egg Association)

No one knows how many individual chickens farmed in the U.S. might be conscious while they are slaughtered. Each processing plant uses its own water-bath settings, and none makes their settings public. Federal regulators don’t record the settings, let alone check that animals are unconscious before slaughter. Independent researchers say they are virtually never allowed to set foot in commercial processing plants.

But scientists say what little is known about standard U.S. industry practices is cause for alarm.

A review by Dr. Mohan Raj, the most widely cited researcher on this topic and an adviser to the European Union’s food safety agency, concluded, “We are aware of no direct evidence demonstrating that the electrical settings used in the United States are adequate to meet international standards for humane stunning and slaughter of poultry.”

The co-author of that review, Dr. Sara Shields, who is now a welfare specialist for Humane Society International, told The Huffington Post that the settings used by U.S. poultry companies “have not been demonstrated to actually produce an effective stun.”

Steve Wotton, a researcher at the University of Bristol’s School of Veterinary Sciences, one of the world’s leading centers for animal welfare research, said much the same. “The U.S. settings that have been reported to me and that I’ve read in published papers are far too low to stun.”

A spokesman for Tyson Foods, the largest U.S. poultry processor, told HuffPost that “proper animal handling is an important moral and ethical obligation and we take it very seriously.”

But, he acknowledged, “like most of the industry, our plants currently use low-voltage electrical stunning.” The company maintains no standard electrical settings, he added, “due to variation from plant to plant.”

Chickens experience a tonic seizure during the application of the electrical stun (in this footage, the stun is administered by an electrified head-only application rather than a water-bath). During a tonic seizure, “the body of the bird stiffens as muscles contract, the neck is arched, the legs are rigidly extended, rhythmic breathing stops, the eyes are wide open, and the blink reflex is absent.” Chickens at U.S. poultry facilities may be conscious during and following these seizures. (Credit: TopKip)

Welfare researchers favor an alternative approach called “controlled atmosphere killing,” whereby birds are exposed to a steadily rising concentration of gas (typically carbon dioxide) until they irreversibly lose consciousness.

More than 20 percent of chickens farmed in Europe are already stunned using controlled atmosphere killing systems, including the majority of chickens in Britain and about half in Sweden, a shift that has not led to price increases for consumers, analysts said.

Even if electric stunners were perfectly effective, animal researchers say they would still be inferior because they involve several additional steps that can inflict pain on the billions of birds that are processed every year.

To prepare for the water-bath, the birds must first be removed from their transport crates, an inelegant process that can result in broken bones and wings as chickens are dropped from their crates.

Each bird is then turned upside-down and has its legs shackled into a metal conveyor. Nearly every aspect of this process causes the animals stress and pain, studies have found.

Unlike humans, chickens do not have diaphragms, so when inverted their viscera compresses their heart and lungs. Chickens also have pain receptors in their legs, and studies show the shackling process causes bruising to thigh muscles and damage to their legs.

Chickens are inverted and shackled into a conveyor. (Credit: U.S. Poultry and Egg Association)

Disoriented and in pain, about 90 percent of chickens flap their wings immediately after shackling. Because the birds that we eat are very young ― just six weeks old on average ― their joints and tendons are underdeveloped, so intense wing-flapping can lead to dislocated joints, broken bones and hemorrhages of the wing tip.

Flapping can also cause birds to receive painful pre-stun shocks as their wings touch the electrified water before their heads are submerged.

Footage of birds entering electric water-baths is rare, but one such video, posted online by a water-bath manufacturer, appears to show one or more ducks receiving pre-stun shocks as they approach an electrified bath. Warning: The footage may be unpleasant for some viewers.

Some chickens manage to avoid being killed by both the water-bath and the neck-cutting, only to suffer an arguably worse fate. The U.S. Agriculture Department estimates that hundreds of thousands of birds are unintentionally boiled alive each year because they manage to survive until they reach a scalding water tank that helps loosen feathers from carcasses.

Controlled atmosphere killing avoids virtually all of these problems, since birds are exposed to gas while still inside their transport crates and all of the subsequent steps are performed after they’re dead.

Gas stunning systems also produce consistently superior meat quality, analysts say, and employees enjoy better conditions. They don’t need to handle live animals, and they can work under normal lighting conditions (electric water-bath facilities are darkened to calm the birds).

Chickens make up well over 90 percent of the land animals slaughtered each year in the United States. The chickens sold for meat, known as broilers, spend their brief lives ballooning to immense proportions, over six times their natural weight, a result of intense genetic selection.

Their underdeveloped bones often cannot handle their body’s own mass, academic and industry studies have found, so many experience painful skeletal disorders, including deformed bones and bowed legs. Others barely walk or just sit stationary.

Then, after six weeks of life, it’s off to the slaughterhouse.

Hoping to build upon recent welfare advancements for egg-laying hens, prominent animal groups, including Mercy for Animals and The Humane League, this year launched the first major campaigns to improve conditions for broilers.

Perdue Farms, the fourth-largest U.S. poultry company, told HuffPost it plans to have a gas stunning system installed in one of its facilities by the end of 2017, and then determine a roll-out schedule for their nine other processing plants. 

Nico Pitney is a senior editor at The Huffington Post. Tips? Feedback? Email him at nico.pitney [at] huffingtonpost.com.

Related...

• Revolution On The Animal Farm
• 'They're Being Eaten Alive!' What I Saw In A Cage-Free Egg Farm
• Obama Regulators Want To Let Factory Farms Label Their Meat 'Humanely Raised'
• Grisly Undercover Video Shows Chickens Being Starved To Produce More Eggs
• There's A Major New Effort To Help The Billions Of Chickens We Eat Every Year
• Egg Farmers Say They'll Stop Grinding Up Millions Of Chicks Alive
• Massachusetts Voters Are About To Pass A Historic Animal Protection Law

Everything You 'Know' About Millennials Is Wrong

As every new generation enters the workforce, it's amazing how quickly they're mislabeled with "attributes" that are common to young people. These labels tend to stick, and they become increasingly inaccurate as the generation ages (assuming they were even accurate to begin with).

Nowhere is this more evident than with Millennials. There's a lot of talk about this generation, who by 2020 will make up more than 50% of the US workforce.

That's why it's so great to see that IBM has decided it's time we quit making assumptions. IBM conducted a global study that aimed to separate fact from fiction so that we can learn what Millennials are really all about.

Here's what they found:

MYTH #1: MILLENNIALS HAVE UNREALISTIC CAREER GOALS

FACT: As it turns out, Millennials are just like everyone else in the workplace. They're after financial and job security, first and foremost. And who can blame them? That's a big part of why we work in the first place.

So don't expect your younger workers to make unrealistic requests of you and your company.

MYTH #2: MILLENNIALS EXPECT ENDLESS PRAISE BECAUSE THEY WERE RAISED IN A CULTURE OF "EVERYONE GETS A TROPHY."

FACT: Not only are Millennials not after endless praise from their manager, their #1 preference in a boss is the same as Boomers. Both want a fair boss who freely shares information. It's Generation Xers who believe that everyone involved in a successful project should be rewarded, and members of this generation are in their early 30s to 50s.

MYTH #3: MILLENNIALS ARE SO ADDICTED TO TECHNOLOGY THAT THEY LACK BOUNDARIES BETWEEN THEIR WORK AND PRIVATE LIVES.

FACT: The opposite is true. Millennials are actually much less likely to blur the boundaries between their work and private lives because they've been raised with technology. They've been bred on nuances that many older workers fail to understand. In fact, Millennials are 4X more likely than Boomers to keep their work and personal lives separate when it comes to technology.

Looks like it's the old dogs that are having trouble learning new tricks.

MYTH #4: MILLENNIALS ARE AFRAID TO MAKE DECISIONS FOR THEMSELVES.

FACT: Millennials are no more likely than Generation X to seek group consensus when making decisions. They simply aren't as timid about making decisions as everyone thinks they are.

And, contrary to the mistaken assumption that Millennials have a tendency to buck authority, more than 50% of them trust their company's leadership to make decisions that are sound (a figure that's in line with Boomers and Generation X).

MYTH #5: MILLENNIALS WILL QUIT A JOB THAT DOESN'T FULFILL THEIR PASSIONS.

FACT: When it comes to changing jobs, Millennials are just like everybody else. The #1 reason they leave is for money. And, just like Boomers and Generation X, Millennials are twice as likely to leave a job for money than if the job fails to fulfill their passions.

BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER

You are making a grave mistake anytime you allow generational stereotypes to affect how you treat your employees. Yet, companies often make wholesale changes based solely upon what they assume younger workers want.

There's a simple way to ensure that this never happens to you. Talk to your Millennials, and find out what they want because it's likely a far cry from what you'd expect. You might even take an emotional intelligence test, to find out if your social awareness skills are as strong as they could be.

Do you agree with the IBM study? What has your experience been like working with and managing Millennials? Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments section below, as I learn just as much from you as you do from me.

Sustainable infrastructure: Looking beyond man-made value

Every few decades, we have an opportunity to make a drastic change to the way we live our lives. We get a chance to design the building blocks of our daily routines, the infrastructure that will support and accompany us for the years to come - from the trains and trams we ride, the offices we work in, to the energy that powers our homes. But it's also an opportunity for us to decide what we value, as we make decisions that determine the fate of the world's natural infrastructure, from forests that clean our air to the soil that produces our food.

Only sustainable infrastructure - one that refuses to trade long-term sustainability for short-term gains - will bring about the transformative change we need. It is key to our ability to deliver the promises of prosperity and sustainability at the heart of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). And to our ability to realise the Paris Agreement on climate change, whose rapid entry into force this week is proof of our collective ambition to further limit global warming and preserve our future.

Making explicit this link between sustainable infrastructure, development and climate change is a new report from the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate. It delivers a strong defence of the potential yields of sustainable infrastructure, and a stark warning of the economic, social and environmental losses if we fail to make the right investment decisions today. Most of all, the Commission, led by former Mexican President Felipe Calderón and which I am a member of, again furthers the case that we can achieve economic prosperity and development, while addressing climate change.

The report estimates that, across man-made and natural infrastructure, the need for investment stands at US$90 trillion over the next 15 years. Two-thirds of that will go to emerging markets.

But it's clear that money alone isn't enough. The report outlines an action plan - for public and private sector actors to champion - and a short time span of two to three years to deliver. We must tackle price distortions, including fossil fuel subsidies. We must have the right policies and institutions if we want to create the right conditions for investment. That will facilitate investments in clean tech. And, crucially, we must accelerate the greening of the financial system.

Land is a great example of how we can manage and invest in sustainable infrastructure for economic, social and environmental gains. Its use - and misuse - is at the heart of the challenge for food, fuel and fibre. It will determine our ability to realise many of the SDGs, from goal 2 to end hunger and goal 8 for those who depends on land and forests for their livelihoods, to goal 15 to protect, restore and promote ecosystems and forests.

If we know that land is key to a prosperous and equitable future, we also know that our current approach is not sustainable. More than 25% of the world's agricultural land is severely degraded. 70% of fresh water withdrawals - which have increased sevenfold since the 1990s - goes to agriculture. And each year, 7.6m ha of forests are permanently converted to other uses - the same amount of forest planted by Brazil that created 630,000 jobs in 2013. Critically, for developing countries, land use remains the largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions, making agriculture a key focus at the United Nations climate change meeting in Marrakesh next month.

With the right policies and institutions in place, we can fill the US$150-250 billion gap needed to restore and conserve agricultural land and forests. Targeted land use interventions could deliver around 30% of the reductions in greenhouse gases we need by 2030. Restoring at least 350 hectares of forests by 2030 could generate US$170 billion per year. Meanwhile, restoring just 12% of degraded agricultural land in developing countries could boost smallholder incomes by US$35-40bn per year, feeding 200 million people per year by 2020.

For land and forests - but also for cities, energy and transport - governments have just two-to-three years to make the right decisions, as interest rates are at record low, finance is available and technology is rapidly changing.

It is also a critical time for a business like ours. We know that our ability to operate in the long-term, to source the water, energy and commodities we need to make goods, depends on the immediate decisions we make.

Indeed, the type of infrastructure we choose to invest in today will determine our future for the next decades. We could be locked in to drastically different scenarios, impacting every aspect of our societies and economies, from how we source our energy, food and water, to how we value the environment and the people who depend on it. By investing in sustainable infrastructure we can choose a sustainable future.


Paul Polman is CEO of Unilever and Chairman of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. You can follow Paul on Twitter @PaulPolman and on LinkedIn.

10 Useful Tools that Every Entrepreneur Should Have

Let me ask you a question.

Do you ever feel like you’re overwhelmed with all of the things you have to do to grow your business?

Of course you do. You’re an entrepreneur, right?

It’s a common feeling. There’s so many different tasks that we have to do in order to reach our goals. Entrepreneurs have to wear a lot of different hats.

I’m going to be blunt.

There’s no way you can handle all of these things by yourself. And even if you could, you would drive yourself crazy trying to keep up with everything, wouldn’t you?

There are several different tools you can use to make your life easier. In this post, I will show you 9 different tools that you can use to take the headache out of entrepreneurship.

Dlvr.it

Dlvr.it is a great social media management tool. If you’re an online entrepreneur, you know how important it is to make sure you’re distributing high-quality content to the people in your audience.

But curating excellent content can be quite time consuming, right? With Dlvr.it social media marketing becomes so much easier.

While other social media marketing tools might suggest content and allow you to schedule it, Dlvr.it does so much more. It will automatically curate content from any RSS feed you give it. Its settings allow you to make sure that it only disseminates a certain type of content. You can even exclude the types of content that you don’t want it to post.

It’s an amazing tool I just started using it, and so far, it’s working great for me.

AWeber

AWeber is an email marketing tool for those who are building an online audience. It makes it easier to communicate with your audience through email.

As you may already know if you’re an online entrepreneur, building a viable email list is immensely important. Your email list is where your money is. That’s why it’s important to communicate with them effectively.

AWeber is a great tool because it’s easy to use, affordable, and effective. It gives you several options for designing your own opt-in forms. If you prefer to use your own form, you can sync it with your AWeber account.

If you’re looking for a useful email marketing solution, you should give them a try.

TrueGether

Truegether is a great tool to use if you sell your products online. It’s a marketplace and also allows you to sell across multiple channels online. It allows you to have all of your channels in one place.

It makes it much easier to manage your business effectively. If you sell on Ebay, Amazon, or Google Shopping, it takes a lot of the hassle out of dealing with multiple accounts. It’s a perfect solution for e-commerce businesses.

Yoast

One of the most important factors that an online entrepreneur must consider is search engine optimization (SEO). Along with content marketing, SEO is one of the best ways to turn your website into a lead generation tool.

If you’re using Wordpress, Yoast is a great plugin that you can use to enhance your SEO efforts. When it’s activated, it can give an “SEO score” to each page and blog post on your website. When you’re creating content, you can choose the keyword you want to rank for and Yoast will let you know how well you’re doing when it comes to writing for that keyword.

It’s a great way to help you rank higher in the search engines. If you know how to use it correctly, Yoast can help you get more visitors to your website.

LastPass

Tired of having to remember tons of passwords? With LastPass, you won’t have to. LastPass is a tool that keeps your passwords in one place.

Chances are, you’re going to be using a lot of different websites when you’re running your business. Of course, it’s important to make sure that you’re using effective passwords to protect your security.

LastPass makes it easier because you don’t have to worry about remembering each password. You also don’t have to worry about writing them all down.

Fiverr

If you have been an entrepreneur for any amount of time, you probably know that you can’t build your business all by yourself. There are so many different roles that you must assume. It can get quite overwhelming.

If you want to maintain your sanity, you need to learn to outsource. But outsourcing can get quite expensive, can’t it?

This is where Fiverr comes in. They make outsourcing a lot more affordable. You can hire freelancers to take care of some of the tasks you need to accomplish. It’s a relatively inexpensive way to take some of the load off.

Fiverr allows you to pay people to create content, edit, research, and fulfill many other functions. Many of these jobs can be done for only $5 (hence the name “Fiverr”)

Here’s a caveat: you need to be careful about which tasks you outsource. You also need to do as much as you can to ensure you’re getting quality work from the people you hire. Since it is so inexpensive, you are going to get what you pay for in most respects.

Even so, it’s a cheap and easy way to get some of your work done.

Feedly

Entrepreneurs need to be constantly improving themselves. When you’re building a business, ongoing learning is extremely important. Additionally, it’s also important that you keep up with any major news in your industry.

Feedly is a highly effective way to do this. Feedly allows you to view all of your favorite RSS feeds in one place. Whenever you have some time to read, you can open the app on your mobile device or PC and select the stories you wish to read.

Gratitude Journal App

I know what you’re thinking. Why in the world would an entrepreneur need a gratitude tool? What does gratitude have to do with growing your business?

I’d argue that gratitude has everything to do with growing your business. As you already know, entrepreneurs deal with a lot of stress. Building a business is hard, right?

Practicing gratitude is one of the best ways to stay sane while you’re dealing with the emotional challenges of entrepreneurship. It’s been shown to make you happier, healthier, and more productive. That’s why you need the Gratitude Journal App.

This app helps you focus on the things that are going right in your life. This is important because we all tend to focus mainly on the negative. When we do this, it hampers our ability to continue moving forward.

When you’re focused on the things you’re grateful for, it makes it easier to deal with the stress that comes with entrepreneurship.

Canva

Building an online business means producing visual content. People tend to digest visual content more easily than just text. Whether you’re writing blog posts, or sharing content on social media, you will need a striking visual that will draw your readers in.

Canva is a tool that makes it easier to create images that will attract attention. When you are creating an image using Canva, you can choose from the stock photos they carry, or you can upload your own. They also have tons of icons you can add to the image as well.

If you’re looking for an easy way to create great images, you should give Canva a try.

DreamItAlive

Let’s face it. Entrepreneurs need inspiration. We all need something that keeps us motivated. Visualization is an easy way to maintain a positive attitude.

When you visualize yourself accomplishing the goals you have set for yourself, it drives you to succeed. It allows you to see a future when you have achieved your goals. If you’re an entrepreneur, you have an idea of where you want your business to be.

When you practice visualization you are able to almost literally “see” yourself being who you are striving to be. It helps you maintain your focus, and it puts you in a more productive mood.

You’ve probably heard of vision boards, right? DreamItAlive is like an online vision board. Using this tool, you can take images from all over and use them to create a vision board that will keep you motivated.

Conclusion

Entrepreneurship is hard enough, right? Using the right tools is essential for your success. When you’re building an online business, you have to give yourself every advantage that you can. Try some of the tools in this post. It’ll make your life easier!

What Happened When I Moved My Company To A 5-Hour Workday

In every office, I’ve often felt, there are just a few people who do three times the work of everyone else, yet their reward is only marginally higher. As an entrepreneur, I’ve been managing my own productivity time—not on-the-clock-time—pretty effectively for over 15 years, and I’ve largely been able to work fewer hours than my friends in the corporate world. So when I started Tower, my company that sells stand-up paddle boards, I figured (or at least hoped) that I could hire just these types and give them a better deal in the process.

So while we operated on a standard eight-hour workday at first, just like most other companies, I wanted to put my theory to the test. And it also seemed like freeing up employees’ afternoons for the outdoor lifestyle the company promoted would be a natural fit. So on June 1, 2015, I initiated a three-month test. I moved my whole company to a five-hour workday where everyone works from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Over a year later, we’re sticking with it. Here’s why, and how we made the change work.

Making The Switch

When we kicked off the pilot program, I told my employees I wanted to give them two things. First, I simply wanted to give them their lives back—so they’d have a pass to walk out each day right at 1 p.m. as long as they proved highly productive. Second, I wanted to pay them better for more the more focused effort that would take. Their per-hour earnings were set to nearly double overnight: we’d be rolling out 5% profit-sharing at the same time.

Prior to the switch, an employee making $40,000 a year would’ve been paid $20 per hour ($40,000 divided by 2,000 hours per year). With the profit-sharing program leading to about $8,000 per person, that same employee would now make about $48,000 but only have a baseline of 1,250 hours per year, so their per-hour earnings would jump to $38.40. And it was crucial to me that this didn’t increase the company’s expenses by a single dime—there’d be no increased financial risk to our bottom line.

In exchange, though, I had a big ask: I needed each of my team members to be twice as productive as the average worker. We had a high bar of productivity to clear before this, and that didn’t change. I told them they just needed to figure out how to do it all in just five hours now—but there’d be support: we’d all need to figure it out and were in this together. If anybody couldn’t, though, they’d be fired. The pressure was real, but so was the incentive to meet the challenge; their workweek had suddenly become better than many people’s vacation weeks.

The results have been astounding. We’ve been named to the Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest growing companies the past two years (we ranked #239 in 2015). This year, our 10-person team will generate $9 million in revenue.

A Leap Of Faith, Made For Good Reasons

To make sure we didn’t bite off more than we could chew, I termed the pilot program “summer hours,” and set the expectation that we’d go back to traditional hours in the fall. This made some room to keep an eye on anything that might go wrong. I was concerned that our reduced customer-service hours and shop hours would mean an equal reduction in revenue. My gut told me that attracting better people, making them happy, and getting out of their way would compensate for these limitations, but we’d need to prove that. I actually suspected things would go down a bit, but the net effect would be worth it.

The reality is that we didn’t take a hit at all. Our annual revenues for 2015 were up over 40%. All our numbers were improving, in fact. When I tell people my team only works five hours a day, their response is always, “That’s nice, but it won’t work for me.” The 9-to-5 workday (or worse) is so ingrained that it’s hard to imagine anything else.

Being a beach lifestyle company, where our whole brand is wrapped up the notion of a healthy work-life balance, the idea that should be working differently, too, if we truly wanted to live differently, wasn’t as much a leap. But if you ask me, we’re more of an online marketing agency that happens to own a surf brand. There’s no reason that virtually any company that employees a large chunk of knowledge workers can’t cut its hours by 30% and still succeed.

The case against ballooning hours is familiar to most and doesn’t need to be rehearsed. Humans aren’t machines; productivity declines the longer you spend with your nose to the grind. On the flip side, it’s been found that happier workers are more productive. Having time to pursue your passions, nurture your relationships, and stay active gives you more emotional and physical energy overall—including to do your job well.

But there’s a less-discussed upside to a shorter workweek, too. In their book Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much, Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir write that having less time creates periods of heightened productivity called “focus dividends.” By trimming your workday down to five hours, time management comes baked into the pie, forcing high-value activities to take priority.

How To Make Working Less Work For Everyone

To be sure, a five-hour workday might not work for every type of worker. But for the vast majority of knowledge workers, clocking fewer hours that generate higher productivity is feasible if you keep these tips in mind:

1. Apply the 80-20 rule. You’ve heard this one before, but it’s critical. The well-known Pareto Principle dictates that 80% of production comes from 20% of efforts. If you can identify those 20% activities in your company’s typical workday, you’ll be able to cut the rest.

2. Shift to a production mind-set. Stop measuring work in hours and start measuring it in output. Most knowledge workers aren’t paid by the hour. They’re paid a flat salary because their employers aren’t buying the ideas they have from 9-to-5; they’re buying the ideas they have in the shower, during lunch, and before getting out of bed.

The 5% profit-sharing we began offering at the same time we shortened the workday was mean to help my team shift to a production mind-set. This way, employees are rewarded for how productive they are, not how long they’re on the clock.

3. Nix the “always available” attitude. One of my biggest reservations about a five-hour workday was reducing our customer service department’s hours. I worried that if we cut our open hours in half, we’d lose half our business. But we weren’t running a convenience store, after all; our customers bought new paddle boards maybe once every five years. It didn’t matter when we were open as long as our customers knew our hours. And the same proved true with our phones. We still get roughly the same number of calls each day, just at a faster clip. And many of those would-be callers now “self-serve” themselves through our website. 

4. Use technology to boost efficiency. The five-hour workday exposed weaknesses that had been hidden by hourly work. To allow our warehouse and customer service employees to work 30% less (without growing our staff), we had to creatively figure out how to serve the same number of customers in less time. The obvious solution was automation. In the warehouse, we reduced our packing and shipping time using software. In customer service, we overhauled our FAQ page and created video tutorials to help customers help themselves.

Once you put a time constraint on work, it forces you to consider how you can get technology to do the heavy lifting so your output doesn’t suffer. We learned that even in our instant-gratification society, being available all day isn’t necessary. You just need to communicate when and how you’re available.

5. Don’t restrict yourself to a 25-hour week. My employees know they can always walk out of the office guilt-free at 1 p.m., and most do most of the time. But it isn’t forbidden for the occasional high performer to still put in a 12-hour day when it’s really crucial. The key is that those crunch periods remain the exception to the rule—which you need to hold up in spirit, not enforce to the letter.

Moving my staff to a five-hour workday was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever made, but today my employees are happier, more productive, and better invested in the business. I’ve since had incredibly high-performers at local companies send us resumes completely unsolicited. We’ve been able to recruit extremely talented people away from jobs where they were making six-figure salaries to come work at Tower for much less.

Someday, when we’re a bigger company, we’ll be able to start people at $80,000 to $100,000—and still let them walk out the door at 1 p.m. When that day comes, we’ll be snatching all the best talent from every company in town. That’s what I’m betting, anyway—after all, this experiment is only a year old, and it doesn’t stop here.

*originally published on www.fastcompany.com

How Can SEO Be Used to Target Millennials

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) remains one of the most powerful ways to reach your target audience. But Google's changes have meant that ranking websites is based on the user experience each customer gets. This means companies have to change the way they do things. SEO is not just a case of throwing in a few keywords and links to sites.

I spoke to Arya Bina, Founder and CEO of Kobe Digital, to talk about how SEO can be used to target millennials, which is one of the hardest groups to hit.

AJ: Thank you for joining me today. Could you tell me more about Kobe Digital?

CEO: Kobe Digital is a company that caters to small and medium-sized businesses. We help them to reach their target audiences. We remain a small firm with a global reach. Our role as a boutique Los Angeles digital marketing firm enables us to give our clients the personalized services they want to conquer the most competitive industries.

AJ: Do you think millennials look at SEO differently than any other generation?

CEO: Millennials definitely view SEO differently. The main difference is that millennials perceive strong SEO to be a requirement for any company they do business with. They have grown up with the Internet and Google their whole lives, the first generation to do so, and finding a piece of information online has become second nature. They do the same when they want to find out more about a business.

For the vast majority of them, the Internet is the first place they look when learning more about a company and its products. Companies that have failed to make a strong online presence their top priority are practically invisible to millennials. They're as good as dead in the water.

AJ: As a boutique LA digital marketing firm, do you find most of your clients are from the local area?

CEO: We have found that the majority of small to medium-sized businesses enjoy working with local agencies. This is because we find that any cultural and logistical challenges are already understood by the agency. Our list of clients reflects this, and the majority of the businesses on this list are based in Southern California to enable this personalized approach.

But Kobe Digital is a national company and there have been many companies from across the country deciding to work with us after being referred. Los Angeles is one of the biggest and best creative hubs in the country, which is why top marketing talent tends to flock here which has enabled Kobe Digital to hire some of the top millennial talent .

AJ: What direction do you think SEO is taking now?

CEO: To us, it's clear that SEO is becoming the new reality when it comes to marketing. SEO has enabled companies to execute campaigns that are targeted, scalable, and measurable. That's the gold standard in advertising. With over 90% of online experiences beginning with a Google search, SEO is the clear choice for any company that wants to hit millennial audiences.

SEO is part of an environment that's dynamic and fast-flowing. It's difficult to predict which direction it will move in over the next few years. But targeted marketing services are sure to continue their relentless advance. Companies will be able to leverage granular data, including time spent on pages, search engine users' search histories, and bounce rates. To a large extent, we've already seen this transformation.

AJ: When marketing to millennials does SEO and/or Social have the stronger place?

CEO: It's easy to think that millennials share every detail on social media, therefore social media marketing is the future of online advertising. At Kobe Digital, we have found that this is true to a certain extent. A strong social media marketing campaign is one of the most effective tools for building your brand and engaging with your customers.

But when it comes to introducing your company's products and services to new demographics, SEO is the best way to increase your visibility. Search engine users are far more likely than social media users to convert. 72% of people who perform a local search will visit the closest store to them. 61% of local searches also lead to a purchase.

Those are numbers social media marketing has yet to reach.

Conclusion - SEO is More Important than Ever

SEO is more important than ever before and there's no doubt that it's a cornerstone for reaching millennials. SEO might have been changed, but it's not going to disappear anytime soon. Companies that fail to invest in SEO are going to be at a crippling disadvantage. And there are no signs of this changing anytime soon as SEO becomes more targeted and more affordable.

What do you think is the most important benefit of SEO?

Companies Paying Americans The Least

Wal-Mart, the world’s largest company and private employer, recently raised the minimum wage of its employees to $10 an hour. Since the company’s announcement last year, several of the corporate giant’s competitors, including Target and TJX, announced similar base minimum wages for their employees. A $10 per hour wage is $2.75 an hour higher than the federal minimum wage.

Wal-Mart and its competitors are often criticized for paying their employees low wages and for treating them poorly. Many claim the wage increases are a public relation move and that these companies can afford to pay much more. Even at $10 an hour, these companies' workers would still be paid far less than the typical American. The average hourly earnings of all U.S. workers is $23.23.

Wal-Mart and Target have raised wages, others in the retail and service industry continue to pay front line workers $9 and $8 an hour. Some often just pay the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the largest American companies paying their workers very low wages.

Click here to see the companies paying Americans the least.

Millions of workers in the United States are currently earning minimum wage or just a few dollars above. David Cooper, senior analyst at left-leaning think tank Economic Policy Institute, discussed the difficulties these low-wage workers face with 24/7 Wall St.

“At $7.25, a minimum wage worker with one child is going to be below the federal poverty line even if they're working full-time, year-round," Cooper said. "There is a federal bill to raise the minimum wage to $12 by 2020. But the reality is that in many parts of the country, you would need more than that minimum wage target in order to have a decent quality of life. In most cities in the U.S., you would probably need at least $15 an hour in order to have a basic decent income.”

Cooper explained that because of the nature of the service sector, companies employing these low-paid workers tend to view them as exhaustible resources. This explains the low pay and high turnover that can sometimes reach nearly 100% in a single year.

Further, these companies have a high share of part-time workers. Indeed, a massive share of frontline workers in the service industry is employed part time. Of Dollar Tree’s 167,800 employees, about 112,00, or two-thirds, are employed in a part-time capacity. Of the 140,000 workers employed by Kohl’s, 77% are part-time workers.

Companies, he explained, do this to be cost-effective, as part-time workers allow for greater flexibility, and also typically do not need to be paid benefits like health care. In addition to missing out on these benefits, Cooper explained, these workers face other problems. Such workers are typically forced to find another job to make ends meet, but if their employer requires them to be flexible, maintaining a second job can be impossible. Cooper added it can also hinder professional development. “if they're constantly shifting from job to job, they're also never really focusing on building their skills.”

The federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour does not apply to tipped employees. While fast food companies on this list, including McDonald's and Yum! Brands, do not employ tipped workers, fast casual dining companies such as Darden, which is on this list, do. Companies that employ tipped workers are only required to pay them $2.13 an hour if workers earn the federal minimum wage through their tips.

The companies paying their workers so little are mostly not struggling -- they pay executives very high salaries and often report large and increasing profits. Wal-Mart raised its minimum wage at U.S. stores to $10 an hour, but it would take 952 full-time employees working year round to match the salary of CEO Douglas McMillon. The profits of most of the companies on this list rose last year. Even among the companies that reported lower net income, most still posted hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars in profits. Low- and minimum-wage workers involved in last year’s fast food strike point to these figures when demanding an increase in wages.

Opponents of raising wages in the service sector explain that asking companies to raise wages is counterproductive for employers and employees alike. allowing companies to set the wages they prefer to pay allows them to hire as many workers as possible. This will likely be more common argument as automation becomes an increasing factor in low-skill work, and employers need to weigh higher salaried employees with potentially cheap and more effective machines. minimum-wage jobs, it has been argued, also create opportunities for young adults or college students entering the workforce for the first time.

Click here to see our full methodology.

10. Dollar Tree, Inc. (NasdaqGS:DLTR)

• Workforce: 167,800
• Annual revenue: $15.50 billion
• CEO: Bob Sasser
• CEO compensation: $9.53 million

Discount store Dollar Tree has locations in all but two U.S. states, as well as in a number of Canadian provinces. The 60-year old company employs more than 160,000 workers at its nearly 7,900 stores. Dollar Tree cashiers can expect to make just $8.22 an hour, roughly $1 above minimum wage. An assistant manager at Dollar Tree makes an annual salary of $41,466. In contrast, the company's CEO Bob Sasser annual salary of $9.53 million is more than 223 times that figure.

In addition to earning close to minimum wage salaries, many Dollar Tree workers likely need to find a second job to make ends meet as 112,500 of the company’s 167,800 workers are part-time employees.

9. Sears Holdings Corporation (NasdaqGS:SHLD)

• Workforce: 178,000 (U.S.)
• Annual revenue: $25.15 billion
• CEO: Edward Scott Lampert
• CEO compensation: $4.3 million

Sears Holdings Corporation is the parent company of the Sears and Kmart brands. Frontline employees at these stores are not paid especially well. The average pay of hundreds of cashier salaries reported to job review website Glassdoor is $8.34 per hour.

While cutting labor costs by paying low wages appears to be helping most companies on this list achieve tremendous financial gains, this does not seem to be the case with Sears. Comparable sales have declined each year for over a decade. As a consequence, store closures and layoffs have become routine in recent years. The company’s U.S. workforce of 178,000 is down from 315,000 in 2007.

8. The TJX Companies, Inc. (NYSE:TJX)

• Workforce: 216,000
• Annual revenue: $30.95 billion
• CEO: Ernie L. Herrman
• CEO compensation: N/A

The TJX Companies, which owns and operates retailers such as T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods, employs 216,000 people. The company announced last year it would increase the minimum wage of workers who had been employed at the company for at least six months to $9 an hour in 2015, and to $10 an hour this year. Assuming a 40-hour workweek and 52 weeks a year, $10 an hour comes to $20,800 annual wage. As of January 31, CEO Carol Meyrowitz stepped down and was replaced by Ernie Hermann. Before she departed, Meyrowitz received an annual salary of $19.6 million.

7. Starbucks Corporation (NasdaqGS:SBUX)

• Workforce: 238,000
• Annual revenue: $19.16 billion
• CEO: Howard D. Schultz
• CEO compensation: $20.09 million

As is generally the case in the service industry, wages at Starbucks are some of the lowest in the United States. In addition to their meager paychecks, the substantial number of Starbucks employees working part time also lack of benefits and have low job security. Starbucks employees have also complained of erratic hours, which can make ordinary life planning a challenge.

CEO Howard Schultz’s salary of over $20 million is in stark contrast with the low pay of his employees. His compensation is one of the highest even compared with other chief executives.

6. Aramark (NYSE:ARMK)

• Workforce: 265,500
• Annual revenue: $14.33 billion
• CEO: Eric Foss
• CEO compensation: $21.14 million

Philadelphia-based Aramark provides dining services, uniforms, and other food service logistics for corporations and educational institutions. This September, a group of female lunch servers at a public school in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, threatened to strike, citing a substantial gap between their salaries and the salaries of men doing comparable work. Aramark agreed to raise the employees’ salaries by a total of $1.20 over the next three years.

As of the end of the most recent fiscal year, Aramark employed 265,000 people worldwide, 110,000 of whom in a part-time capacity.

5. Target Corp. (NYSE:TGT)

• Workforce: 341,000
• Annual revenue: $73.79 billion
• CEO: Brian Cornell
• CEO compensation: $16.95 million

Target had a very successful 2015 fiscal year. After reporting an operating loss of $1.3 billion in 2014, Target reported net income of $3.3 billion in 2015. Based on hundreds of employee reports at Glassdoor.com, the typical cashier at Target makes around $9 an hour. A sales floor team member earns an average $9.19 an hour. However, Target recently announced it would raise its minimum pay to $10. Based on this figure, a Target employee working 40 hours a week for 52 weeks a year would earn $20,800 annually. Target CEO Brian Cornell made $16.95 million last year.

4. McDonald's Corp. (NYSE:MCD)

• Workforce: 420,000
• Annual revenue: $25.41 billion
• CEO: Stephen Easterbrook
• CEO compensation: $7.91 million

Thousands of low-wage workers protested for higher wages outside McDonald’s headquarters last year, one of a string of related demonstrations reported in recent years. The protests are a strong indication that for many employees, including those at McDonald’s, wages are inadequate. Amid flagging sales in recent years, the hamburger chain replaced CEO Don Thompson with Stephen Easterbrook earlier this year. With mounting protests, the company announced a pay raise for its employees, although the move was criticized as a public relations stunt since the increase would only apply to company-owned stores, which only account for around 10% of McDonald’s restaurants. The vast majority of stores are franchises.

3. The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR)

• Workforce: 431,000
• Annual revenue: $109.83 billion
• CEO: W. Rodney McMullen
• CEO compensation: $11.75 million

Supermarket chain Kroger employs over 430,000 workers at more than 2,700 stores. Based on hundreds of employee reviews on Glassdoor, the average front-line worker at Kroger locations do not earn much more than the minimum wage -- cashiers earn an average of $8.39 an hour. Working full-time, year round, a cashier earning these wages would make $17,451 annually before taxes. In contrast, company Chairman and CEO W. Rodney McMullen earned $11.75 million last year. Meanwhile, company profits have steadily increased in recent years. Net income of the Cincinnati-based company rose from $2.73 billion in fiscal 2013 to $3.58 billion in fiscal 2015.

2. Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

• Workforce: 505,000
• Annual revenue: $13.11 billion
• CEO: Greg Creed
• CEO compensation: $7.49 million

Yum! Brands is the owner and operator of fast food chains KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell. The vast majority of workers at these fast food chains are part-time, hourly paid employees. Based on salaries reported to Glassdoor, delivery drivers, crew members, shift managers and cooks are paid as little as $8 per hour.

Most of Yum! Brands restaurants are located in the United States. With success in countries such as China, however, 70% of KFC restaurants are located overseas, where working conditions are often considerably worse than they are for low-paid U.S. employees.

1. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT)

• Workforce: 2,300,000
• Annual revenue: $478.61 billion
• CEO: C. Douglas McMillon
• CEO compensation: $19.81 million

C. Douglas McMillon’s annual compensation of nearly $20 million is one of the largest even among U.S. chief executives. Yet McMillon’s salary pales against the wealth accumulated by the Walton Family, two of whom currently serve on Wal-Mart’s board of directors. With a combined worth of more than $140 billion, the Waltons are the wealthiest family in the United States by a wide margin. Meanwhile, Walmart employs the largest force of low wage workers in the world.

After four consecutive years of revenue gains, Walmart reported a 0.7% decline in revenue in fiscal 2016 compared to fiscal 2015. Walmart’s latest revenue of $482.13 billion still dwarfs the revenue of any other U.S. company.

Want to see the full list? Click here to see all of the companies paying Americans the least at 24/7 Wall St.

Click here to see the 13 most valuable startups.

Click here to see the best and worst economies in the world.

Click here to see the largest industry in every state.

9 Ways Influencer Marketing Can Exceed Traditional Advertising

By Joe Gagliese

Traditionally, online content was made to be delivered in a commercialized way, similar to pop-up ads and YouTube pre-rolls. But the problem with content like this is that it's built with a brand's perspective in mind, not a customer's. This results in content that doesn't resonate or engage with an audience.

To successfully resonate with a target audience, content must emulate something or someone that the customer relates to. The overwhelming nature of ads explains why marketing efforts through print, email campaigns, mainstream digital and TV are becoming less effective. But a new extension into the marketing world, known as influencer marketing, is making waves.

At its core, influencer marketing leverages people with heavily-engaged audiences to communicate a brand's message. It breaks through the noise and connects to the masses, making it more likely to be seen, heard and absorbed than traditional advertising alone. 

As the founder of a global influencer marketing and talent agency that has launched hundreds of campaigns for brands, I've come to understand the value behind the industry and how the space really works. Here are nine reasons why influencer marketing is exceeding traditional advertising.

1. It's Organic 

Brands that allow for influencers to have more creative freedom achieve incredible results with their content. According to data from Twitter, there is a 5.2 percent increase in purchase intent when users are exposed to both brand and influencer tweets, versus a mere 2.7 percent increase when users are exposed to tweets from brands alone. 

2.  It's Shareable

Shareability is the driving force behind what makes social media as powerful as it is, as it takes word-of-mouth marketing to an entirely new level. For instance, it's likely someone will feel more compelled to share a video of a lifestyle YouTuber conducting a beauty tutorial than sharing a product advertised on a YouTube pre-roll. In fact, 94 percent of people skip pre-roll ads after the five-second mark.

3. It Promotes Trust

Trust is the foundation that needs to be built between a consumer and a brand, and influencers assist in bridging the two. Consumers can feel comfortable relying on influencers for recommendations on a certain brand or product just as they would with a friend. 

4. It Can Tap Into Specific Audiences

Influencers can be the key to tapping into a target audience: This is because influencers aren't unique to one area; they're spread throughout the world. Each influencer audience differs significantly from one another, whether it be by location, age, gender, etc. More so, influencers tap into a variety of interests, including travel, food, art, sports, beauty, DIY, etc.

5. It Can Be Amplified by Paid Media

Paid media through social is a large part of many marketers' current spend, and its landscape is ever-changing as platforms continue to transform. Paid media can be used to amplify influencer content on brand platforms, or within the influencer's channel.

6. It's Cost-Effective

When compared to mainstream marketing, influencer marketing is more cost-effective in many ways. Traditionally, the costs associated with creating content can be extremely high, but influencers create content as part of the cost of leveraging their network. Content from creators is typically much more vibrant and engaging, thus achieving a more valuable result. Organic reach and the quality of the audience's attention delivers more value than comparable media prices, with access to the same audience.

7. It Serves More Than One Purpose

Influencer marketing is not about merely posting to a large audience. Content produced by influencers can be reused for paid media, distribution, social content and commercials, just to name a few. Influencers have the ability to be multifaceted with a brand, just as content creators, strategists, brand ambassadors and spokespeople are. 

8. It Attracts a Younger Audience

Today's generations aren't engaging with advertisements on TV as previous generations once did. According to Think with Google, in 2015, 18- to 49-year-olds spent four percent less time watching TV, and 74 percent more time watching YouTube. Influencer marketing offers access to audiences that have been disengaged and grants more communication with them than ever before. 

9. It Connects the Consumer to the Brand

In traditional forms of advertising, there is little that ties the consumer to the brand. Influencer marketing has the ability to dramatically increase the way consumers interact with a brand, as influencers can create a voice for that brand. Consumers may also rely on influencers to dictate their decisions and preference. 

Ultimately, it comes down to this: Would you rather have a pop-up ad tell your story or a trusted voice? Influencer marketing is still overlooked and misunderstood in many ways within the media industry, but the amount of brands and agencies that are embracing influencer marketing continues to increase.

Joe Gagliese is the Co-Founder of Viral Nation. Joe is an industry thought leader on all things social.