This question was asked recently on LinkedIn within the Answers section. It was followed up with a clarification question.
“If you are a business owner, or part of the HR department, what are some of the major [sic] challenges that you are experiencing in identifying great people?”
I am not sure why, but something clicked. I provided the following answer:
“I have hired in the past. Identifying great people is never the problem. It is whether or not you can offer them an environment to work in that will foster their greatness that is the issue. Can you pay them what they want, offer them the benefits they need, challenge them in the work they do, and promise them the people they will work with are also great?
Usually the question then becomes, if we are unable to hire great people, what kind of people do we get for the budget we have and given the environment around us? This is a very legitimate question to consider. It is also why many employees consider HR to be the scourge of any organization. They fail to answer the question, and instead try to fit great people into not-so-great places to work. By the time these great people know any better, it is too late.”
Am I wrong?
I had lunch with a former colleague recently, and we were discussing the type of work environments that are conducive to productivity and employee retention. As a psychology major he was able to pinpoint a simple principle that I had overlooked, but that was strikingly obvious. Enlightened by his observation, I wonder now how many in my field wish to adorn a stick-on name tag, and state with anxious resolve, “Hi, my name is Resource. I am seventy-five percent billable.” Continue reading.
Do you remember Book It!, the reading incentive program by Pizza Hut that is still available to elementary school teachers? Just like the Scholastic Book Club before it, both provide children with an exciting avenue that fosters reading. It meant gold stars, the admiration of your peers, and quiet nights under the covers accompanied only by a flashlight and the intoxicating smell of an old library book. Of course, it also meant free pizza. Continue reading.
My father worked for the United States Postal Service for thirty years. He received incremental pay raises, a steady paycheck, a pension, rarely worked a day of overtime, and even received an award for never taking a sick day in fifteen years. He was in at 8:30am and home by 5:30pm, and I never heard him complain once about his job. Without asking, you would presume he was happy with his work. Continue reading.
What I am about to propose probably flies in the face of what the vast majority of life coaches teach, but it has merit by my own personal experience. I invite you to consider applying some of these principles to your own life and judge for yourself. Continue reading.
Managing client expectations before, during, and after a project is completed, is a difficult task for just about any freelancer. Overcoming technical boundaries, unexpected requirements, and indecisiveness are just a few of the issues that can strain the client relationship. If you are successful, you may not even have time to dissect the problems that plague you, since you move quickly from one client to the next. The following tips should help to alleviate some of this stress, and help to strengthen your reputation as a rock-solid professional. Continue reading.
Every day I sit down at my workstation, evaluate the tasks assigned to me, and then instantly begin coding solutions to the problems I must solve. This is all done by memory of course, without the assistance of programmers who have tread the same road before me. I do this without hesitation, and I still always manage to create an optimized, and scalable program, invariably developing the perfect piece of software. If you believe this, I have some swampland I would like to sell to you East of the Mississippi. Please email me for details. Continue reading.
Posted by Brian
May 9th, 2008
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