Great Hi Tech Businesses Like Conduit Also Create a Better Society

For years, I have been involved (but not enough) in a social justice organization called B'maagalei Tzedek. Bmaagalei Zedek is an organization that looks out for those who Israeli society has lost sight of, the invisible people we run into every day. One of the causes that Bmaagalei Zedek has been fighting for is the rights of contract workers or, in Hebrew, עובדי קבלן. We see these workers every day. They are office cleaners, unarmed security guards, and other hourly workers who we run into in our offices and at cafes but we do not really see them or their plights. They are the working poor and are, often, poorly treated by the agencies that hire them and rent them out. These agencies look to reduce the costs of these laborers by not offering benefits and driving down salaries through frequent switching of workers. These are hardworking people, who often work two and three jobs just to finish the month and do not get government handouts or monthly stipends.

On Thursday, I received a call from Ronen Shilo, CEO of Conduit, one of our portfolio companies. The call made me both happy and proud. Ronen announced that earlier that day Conduit had decided to hire the three cleaning people who clean the Conduit office every day and to throw out the agency. By hiring the cleaners directly, Conduit significantly increased their take-home salary and gave them social benefits like every engineer. Conduit also granted these former contract workers stock options! Net cost to the Company? nearly zero. Value to the Company's soul, values and employees? Priceless! They deserve these stock options because the cleaners are responsible for the work environment that lets Conduit employees be so productive and help make Conduit a successful company.

The cleaners were elated, holding back tears of joy when they were formally hired by Conduit. They each hold down a few jobs and this will give them time with their family. Conduit was simply doing the right thing for everyone, yet so few, if any, other companies do this. The people behind Conduit have created an environment at Conduit that values hard work, teamwork, ingenuity and impeccable ethics. Those ethics and values increase the value of the company, our investment and society.

I would like to call on all high tech companies to follow Conduit's example. I know that small start-ups do not have the resources to manage this but any company that can afford a CFO or a VP of HR, should have the management bandwidth to put the cleaning people on the payroll. That is true of large companies and large start ups. The cleaners and other contract workers' salaries are barely noticeable next to the 30,000+ NIS engineer's salary and it makes a real difference in their lives and ours. Let us issue a clarion call to unbond these contract workers from their "agents" and better our society as well. ציון במשפט תיפדה ושביה בצדקה.