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Syracuse Q4 hiring plans mirror those of a year ago

Employee Benefits & Human Resources

Syracuse–area firms plan to hire in the fourth quarter of 2012 at a comparable rate as they did in the same period last year, according

MV regional economic development council finalizes action plan

Regional News

The Mohawk Valley Regional Economic Development Council (MVREDC) has approved its preliminary action plan for 2012 and expects to submit a finalized plan on Sept.

Small-business optimism increases in August

Small Business

A bump in hiring plans helped boost a measure of small business owners’ optimism in August. The Small Business Optimism Index from the National Federation

MicroGen to use $2.6M in funding to launch production

Energy, Environment & Sustainability, Regional News, Small Business, Subscriber Only, Technology

ITHACA — MicroGen Systems, Inc. will use $2.6 million in new funding to launch production of its chip-sized power generator. The device can transform subtle vibrations into energy. MicroGen’s initial markets will include commercial and industrial monitoring. The company’s generator will power sensor networks used to watch manufacturing processes or the health of roads and

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ITHACA — MicroGen Systems, Inc. will use $2.6 million in new funding to launch production of its chip-sized power generator.

The device can transform subtle vibrations into energy. MicroGen’s initial markets will include commercial and industrial monitoring. The company’s generator will power sensor networks used to watch manufacturing processes or the health of roads and bridges.

Manufacturing will be under way by June 2013, MicroGen co-founder and CEO Robert Andosca says. The Ithaca–based company will have pre-production samples available by the first quarter of next year.

XTRION N.V. of Belgium was the leader of the funding round, which also included some angel investors from New York state. MicroGen has also received support from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), Andosca says.

XTRION has investments in semiconductor firms and companies specializing in tiny electrical and mechanical systems. XTRION Managing Director Rudi De Winter joined MicroGen’s board of directors after the funding round.

The relationship with XTRION, which has strong ties to the semiconductor industry, will allow MicroGen to reach new markets more readily and provide resources for faster ramp up, the company says. The new funding round was MicroGen’s series A.

The company, based at the Cornell Nanoscale Science and Technology Facility, received some angel investment and grant funding from sources like NYSERDA in the past.

One of XTRION’s businesses will manufacture MicroGen’s power generator in Germany, Andosca says.

MicroGen employees in New York state will then test, assemble, and provide quality control for the company’s full device, which will include additional electronics and batteries to store energy created by the generator, Andosca explains. The firm currently has fewer than 10 employees, but Andosca expects to have 30 to 40 in New York by 2016.

MicroGen’s device also has potential applications in the transportation sector. Possible customers have expressed strong interest in using the generator to power tire-pressure sensors, a market which involves about 164 million units per year, Andosca says.

The company has also explored the use of its device at vibrations of lower frequency. Such research could eventually lead to consumer applications, including allowing a user to charge a cell phone simply by walking.

Andosca first began developing the MicroGen device while in graduate school at the University of Vermont.

MicroGen won the $200,000 grand prize in the Creative Core Emerging Business Competition earlier this year. The firm had been a finalist in the competition for the past two years before winning.

Past winners of the competition include Sound Reading Solutions, Widetronix, e2e Materials, and Mezmeriz, all based in Ithaca. The winner of the 2011 competition, BrandYourself.com, is based in Syracuse.

Contact Tampone at ktampone@cnybj.com

Small-business owners boost optimism in August

Small Business, Subscriber Only

A measure of small-business owners’ optimism ticked up in August as employers indicated they plan to put up more help-wanted signs. The Small Business Optimism Index from the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) increased by 1.7 points to 92.9. The rise followed a 0.2 point dip in July. However, the index failed to rebound

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A measure of small-business owners’ optimism ticked up in August as employers indicated they plan to put up more help-wanted signs.

The Small Business Optimism Index from the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) increased by 1.7 points to 92.9. The rise followed a 0.2 point dip in July.

However, the index failed to rebound to its highest point in 2012 — 94.5, which it registered in April. The August index is still a “solid recession reading,” according to the NFIB.

The month’s uptick in optimism came as small-business owners boosted their hiring plans. The seasonally adjusted net percentage of owners planning to hire in the next three months moved up 5 points to 10 percent.

The portion of business owners expecting higher sales during the next three months also rose 5 points. It broke out of negative territory, notching a seasonally adjusted net 1 percent.

That means more business owners now expect higher sales than predict lower sales. The NFIB calculates net percentages by subtracting pessimistic survey responses from optimistic responses, so positive net percentages reflect predominantly optimistic business owners. Negative percentages indicate widespread pessimism.

New York director’s comments

The findings in the Small Business Optimism Index, which is calculated from a national survey, hold true in New York but the election season brings uncertainty, according to the state’s NFIB director, Mike Durant. He believes the predominance of attack advertisements in this year’s campaigns affects business-owners’ outlooks.

“Business owners are very educated about the impact of public policy,” he says. “When the theme is politics, the public-policy discussion is flushed to the back. And that adds to the uncertainty of the future for entrepreneurs.”

Durant does not anticipate seeing major swings in the optimism index before the November elections.

“You’re not going to see anything until Election Day,” he says. “The political gridlock in Washington, D.C. and the elections in New York are going to have a lot to say about business owners’ trajectory going forward.”

Other survey findings

Three other optimism-index components increased in August. Plans to make capital expenditures in the next three to six months climbed 3 points. A seasonally adjusted 24 percent of business owners said they were preparing for such expenditures.

Small businesses reported an escalating number of hard-to-fill job openings. Seasonally adjusted, 18 percent of small employers said they had positions they were not able to fill, up 3 points from July.

And business owners tempered their pessimism on the economy’s future. The net percentage of owners expecting better general business conditions in six months stepped up 6 points to -2, seasonally adjusted. The negative reading continues to indicate more business owners anticipate worsening conditions, though.

Falling index components included expected credit conditions and earnings trends. The net percentage of regular borrowers expecting better credit conditions during the next three months dropped 2 points to -9 percent. The net percentage reporting higher earnings in the last three months compared to the prior three months eroded by 1 point to -28 percent, seasonally adjusted.

And the seasonally adjusted portion of owners who view this as a good time to expand slipped by 1 point as well. It fell to 4 percent.

The remaining two optimism-index components, which both deal with inventories, did not move in August. The seasonally adjusted net percentage of business owners satisfied with their inventories was unchanged at 0. The seasonally adjusted net percentage planning to increase their inventories in the next three to six months held steady at -1 percent.

Nearly a quarter of small-business owners, 23 percent, named taxes as their single most important problem. Another 21 percent cited government regulations and red tape, while 20 percent pointed to poor sales.

The NFIB is a nonprofit organization with members in 50 states and Washington, D.C. It randomly surveyed 736 of its member businesses in the month of August to develop the optimism index.

Contact Seltzer at rseltzer@cnybj.com

Welch Allyn restructuring to cost 45 jobs in CNY

Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Health Care, Manufacturing & Engineering, Subscriber Only

SKANEATELES FALLS — Welch Allyn will eliminate 45 jobs over three years at its Skaneateles Falls headquarters as it carries out a companywide restructuring, but the location will not bear the brunt of the corporation’s planned employment cuts. The medical-device manufacturer announced on Sept. 10 that it will reduce its work force by 10 percent

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The medical-device manufacturer announced on Sept. 10 that it will reduce its work force by 10 percent over three years. It currently employs 2,750 people in 26 different countries.

Its 350,000-square-foot headquarters, which is located at 4341 State St. Road in Skaneateles Falls, employs more than 1,300 people. The 45 positions to be cut there will not be manufacturing jobs, according to Steve Meyer, Welch Allyn president and CEO.

“Here in Skaneateles, we don’t expect there to be a shop-floor labor impact,” he says. “There’s a pretty specific set of processes around this. There will be some [cuts] each of the next three years.”

Manufacturing employees at the company’s headquarters are still in line for some changes. Welch Allyn plans to transfer thermometer-probe cover, lamp, and some blood-pressure cuff manufacturing from Skaneateles Falls to a plant it runs in Tijuana, Mexico. It will then move patient-monitoring systems and low-acuity vital-signs manufacturing to Skaneateles Falls. Those products are currently made at the company’s Beaverton, Ore. facility.

Welch Allyn will retrain manufacturing employees in Skaneateles to work in the relocated product lines, according to Meyer. It expects to cut 160 manufacturing jobs in Beaverton, where it employs nearly 300 people, he says.

The company cited two reasons for the restructuring and job cuts: economic weakness in Europe, and a 2.3 percent federal tax on the sale price of medical devices, which is scheduled to start in 2013 as part of the U.S. health-care reform law.

“It’s a changing business climate over the last two to three years,” Meyer says. “European markets have flattened out, and in some cases business there has gotten very difficult.”

The U.S. market is shrouded in uncertainty, Meyer continues. As the nation restructures its health-care system under the health-care reform law, market demands are changing. And the device tax has a major impact on income, he adds.

“Much of our business in the U.S. is under contract,” Meyer says. “So we’re pressurized by the contract, unable to raise prices very much at all.”

Welch Allyn does not disclose revenue or other financial information. Meyer would only say that between 35 percent and 40 percent of the company’s sales take place outside of the United States.

“There is a positive impact of the international business,” he says. “We’ve made some investments there over the last several years, including opening a research-and-development center in Singapore. We’re going to bring even more focus on that going forward — the emerging market in Asia where almost two-thirds of the world’s population is located.”

The corporate restructuring will have Welch Allyn establishing three product-development and technology centers. They will be in its Skaneateles Falls headquarters, Beaverton, and Singapore.

Details about the centers’ roles have yet to be finalized, Meyer says. But the Skaneateles Falls center will likely emphasize mechanical and electrical engineering. Beaverton will probably focus on wireless technology and software. The company’s Singapore location, which currently has about 30 employees in research and development, is set to target emerging markets.

That’s different from the manufacturer’s research-and-development operations today, which span Skaneateles Falls, Beaverton, Singapore, and Ireland. The locations’ roles are not currently clearly defined, Meyer says.

The future of Welch Allyn’s Ireland operation has yet to be decided. The company plans to spend 90 days evaluating all of its European functions, according to Meyer. It will also reorganize its business in Latin America.

Welch Allyn will start its 10 percent job cut by searching for voluntary reductions, Meyer says. It will then move on to involuntary eliminations. The company will reimburse laid-off workers up to $4,000 each in educational costs and offer a “generous separation package,” Welch Allyn said in a news release.

Contact Seltzer at rseltzer@cnybj.com

Time Warner expands fiber access in Central New York

Energy, Environment & Sustainability, Regional News, Subscriber Only, Technology

DeWITT — Time Warner Cable, Inc. (NYSE: TWC) plans to invest $6.5 million to expand its fiber-optic network in Central New York this year. The company will likely continue its investment in network improvements in the years ahead as well, says Fritz Ferrell, vice president for new market development and field operations. The 2012 expansion

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DeWITT — Time Warner Cable, Inc. (NYSE: TWC) plans to invest $6.5 million to expand its fiber-optic network in Central New York this year.

The company will likely continue its investment in network improvements in the years ahead as well, says Fritz Ferrell, vice president for new market development and field operations. The 2012 expansion will bring the network to areas that didn’t previously have access to high-speed fiber, according to the company.

Recent expansions included areas of Auburn, Cicero, Clay, Gouverneur, Horseheads, Jamestown, Liverpool, Lowville, Rome, Syracuse, Utica, and Watertown. Additional areas on tap for fiber expansion include Binghamton, Cortland, East Syracuse, Ithaca, Massena, Ogdensburg, Potsdam, and downtown Syracuse.

Continued developments are projected in Cicero, Liverpool, Rome, and Utica, according to the company.

The expansion is driven mainly by Time Warner’s business customers, Ferrell says. Companies are demanding more bandwidth.

The access allows for applications that require more data. But bandwidth doesn’t just mean more speed and new applications, Ferrell notes.

More bandwidth will allow greater numbers of users access to high-speed networks, he says.

The company is trying to give its customers what they need to expand and grow, Ferrell says. The current expansion began at the beginning of this year, he adds.

Ferrell says he’s not sure yet what next year’s budget for network upgrades will be.

“I think this will be an ongoing expansion,” he says. “This is a need that businesses have.”

The work in Central New York is part of a larger $100 million expansion taking place throughout Time Warner’s markets in the Northeast, New York City, and the Carolinas. Once completed, the expansion will provide 10,000 new areas with high-speed access.

Time Warner Cable employs 1,800 people in Central New York and more than 51,000 people nationwide. The firm has more than 14 million customers.

The company generated revenue of $5.4 billion in the second quarter, up 9.3 percent from the same period last year. Net income attributable to common shareholders totaled $452 million for the period, up from $420 million in the second quarter of 2011.

Earnings per diluted share totaled $1.43, up from $1.24.

Time Warner Cable generated revenue of $19.7 billion in 2011, up 4.3 percent from 2010. Net income attributable to common shareholders totaled $1.7 billion, or $4.97 per diluted share, compared with $1.3 billion, of $3.64 per diluted share, in 2010.

Time Warner Cable Business Class services include data, video, phone, cell tower backhaul services to wireless carriers, and through its NaviSite subsidiary, hosting, managed application, messaging, and cloud services.

Labor-law experts: Employers should consider anti-bullying policies

Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Law, Accounting & Taxes, Regional News, Subscriber Only

UTICA — Most people have been bullied at one point or another in their lives. For many, that sort of teasing and harassment takes place during the school years, and recent awareness of the pervasiveness of bullying at school led to the passage of the state’s Dignity for All Students Act on July 1. The

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The law seeks to create a school environment free from discrimination and harassment, but what happens when students leave school and eventually enter the workplace, but the harassment doesn’t stop?

While there currently aren’t any laws on the books in New York addressing anti-bullying in the workplace, this is an issue where employers really should be proactive and consider adopting an anti-bullying policy, attorney Joseph DeTraglia says. DeTraglia is a partner at the Utica law firm of Getnick Livingston Atkinson & Priore, LLP (www.getnicklivingston.com), where he heads up the firm’s labor and employment practice group.

“As an employer, you want to be proactive about these issues because you can’t assume it only happens to other employers,” DeTraglia says of workplace bullying and the issues that can arise from it.

Workplace bullying, at its most basic description, refers to the repeated acts of an employee intended to intimidate and humiliate a co-worker or a subordinate, according to a news release from JusticeNewsFlash.com, a Florida–based legal news website.

In the release, Dallas law firm Clouse Dunn LLP offers some more specific examples of acts that could be construed as bullying including: falsely blaming an employee; treating a worker differently than the rest of the group; swearing at an employee; physically threatening or intimidating an employee; teasing an employee; spreading gossip and rumors about a worker; and excluding the employee from work or social functions.

What makes policing workplace bullying difficult, DeTraglia says, is that while most can agree those sorts of behaviors are offensive, in most cases they are not illegal. But the impact of bullying is very real, he notes, and the reactions can become severe.

“Bullying in a workplace that’s left unchecked could escalate into workplace violence,” he says. That’s why he encourages employers to meet with their legal counsel to review current policies in place and draft new ones if necessary.

All employers should have policies in place to prevent harassment and discrimination under federal laws that prohibit discriminating against employees on a number of classifications including gender, race, age, or sexual orientation.

Many actions that could be interpreted as bullying may fall under those policies, DeTraglia notes, “but you don’t have to stop there. You can have your own code of conduct.”

An employer can set forth a policy that outlines what behaviors will not be tolerated in the workplace and what disciplinary actions will result from violating the policy, DeTraglia says. Such a policy can go a long way toward creating a pleasant and productive workplace, he adds.

The basics of any good policy will include three elements, he said. They are providing an avenue for complaints, investigating those complaints, and taking corrective action where necessary.

“That’s your best defense to a lawsuit,” DeTraglia says. “That you actually have a policy and you take it seriously.”

Along with providing protection from lawsuits, having a good policy in place can benefit employers by increasing morale and productivity and cutting costs associated with replacing and training new staff members when others leave due to bullying behavior, the Clouse Dunn firm said in the release.

The bottom line? “You want to have a workplace where people are not feeling threatened or intimidated,” DeTraglia says.

Contact DeLore at tdelore@tmvbj.com

Syracuse-nonprofit-On-Point-for-College-expands-to-Utica

Health Care, Regional News, Small Business, Subscriber Only

UTICA — Low-income, homeless, and other at-risk youth have new support on their side if going to college is a goal, now that On Point for College, Inc. has opened a location at 524 Elizabeth St. The Syracuse–based nonprofit hopes to send at least 50 Utica–area youth off to college by August 2013, says Executive

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UTICA — Low-income, homeless, and other at-risk youth have new support on their side if going to college is a goal, now that On Point for College, Inc. has opened a location at 524 Elizabeth St.

The Syracuse–based nonprofit hopes to send at least 50 Utica–area youth off to college by August 2013, says Executive Director Virginia Donohue.

On Point for College (www.onpointforcollege.org) received a $250,000 grant to fund its first year of operations in Utica. On Point received a total of $1.9 million last September from a College Access Challenge Grant awarded to the state by the U.S. Department of Education to replicate its program in two cities. Earlier this year, On Point opened a location in New York City in partnership with Goddard Riverside Community Center and New Settlement Apartments.

In Utica, Donohue says, the goal is to meet with at least 150 youth, work with 75 of them, and send 50 students off to college in either January or August.

“Secretly, we hope to beat those numbers,” Donohue says.

On Point considered Utica, Buffalo, and Rochester when looking for a second site to replicate its successful Syracuse model. Utica just stood out, Donohue says, not only for the more than 40 nonprofit and community agencies that came together in support of the project, but also because of the area’s high high-school graduation rate of about 66 percent. There is a disconnect, she says, because only 18 percent of those graduates go on to college, showing a need where On Point can step in and help people achieve that goal.

On Point will reach out to those youth by visiting community centers, homeless shelters, and GED sites to connect with them, she says. The typical goal is to reach out to 10 sites on a weekly basis.

On Point works with youth ages 17 to 25 and doesn’t just help them get into college. The rest of the agency’s work involves keeping the students in college and helping them graduate, Donohue says. That involves the agency’s crew of about 160 volunteers driving students to and from college, handing out school supplies, and meeting with students on campus to make sure they are adjusting to college life.

In Syracuse, almost one-third of the students On Point works with don’t have any parents involved in their lives. Many don’t have a place to live when college isn’t in session. These are all issues On Point helps the students deal with so they have a successful college experience, Donohue says.

Every student that On Point helps complete college has a potential huge impact on the community, she contends. Those graduates often inspire their siblings to attend college and usually make it a priority for their own children to attend college. They also increase the work force with their skills.

“The multiplier effect is amazing,” Donohue says.

Currently, Donohue is meeting with area officials such as Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente, Jr. to assess the work-force needs of area employers. She’s looking to learn what jobs are tough for employers to fill so she can help steer students in those directions.

Donohue hopes the one-room Utica office will be up and running at full speed by October. To start things up in Utica, Donohue says On Point for College is currently looking to hire a program director, two advisers, and an office manager. On Point rents the room from the Educational Opportunity Center operated by Mohawk Valley Community College.

Donohue founded On Point for College in 1999 after eight years of volunteer work helping homeless youth attend college. According to the agency’s 2011 Form 990 on file at www.guidestar.org, On Point generated revenue of $1.1 million, including $226,406 in grants and $532,407 in contributions in the fiscal year covering Sept. 1, 2010 to Aug. 31, 2011. The agency’s expenses were $1 million.

The agency’s Utica–area project partners include Mohawk Valley Community College, the Literacy Coalition of Oneida and Herkimer Counties, and Community Foundation of Oneida and Herkimer Counties, Inc.

Contact DeLore at tdelore@tmvbj.com

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