AKA Our Work Life Balance Program Saved My Sanity

I’m writing this with the grainy-eyed-haven’t-slept-in-almost-24-hours stare that is usually associated with psychopaths and highly-caffeinated college students. This has been a week for the record books, and I’m hoping tomorrow turns out better. The short version is that a perfect storm of personal and work activities led to my week turning inside out. This is the third night this week that I’ve had to work late, and I don’t know what I would do without the little miracles like remote access to my email and workstation.

We believe in work/life balance here. Plenty of you work for companies that say that, and some of them mean it while others don’t.

I tell new hires a few things about this to help cement the idea in their heads that we’re not typical. The first is: We are flexible here with work schedules. You work when and where you want. As long as you and your supervisor are okay with it, pretty much anything goes. The second one is good enough to be set apart with the fancy block quote thing:

This flexibility/balance thing is about fitting your work  into your life, not fitting your life in around your work.

My manager is simply amazing when it comes to this. Whenever it even remotely looks like something personal might conflict with something work-related, she immediately pushes you toward the personal choice. It’s never a conflict because she doesn’t let it be, and that’s incredibly refreshing.

The ability to work when/how/where I want is worth a lot to me. Previous jobs didn’t offer that flexibility. Now that we have toddlers running around at home, there’s approximately 4000% more potential for getting sick or having something else come up that impairs my ability to work normal hours.

At one point in my life I would have seriously freaked out about that kind of thing. I’d wonder what everyone was thinking about me having to take off. I’d make excuses to try and feel better about missing work. I’d rationalize.

Now I just relax the best I can, catch up on email during nap time, and keep a smile on my face. Crazy things may come, but I can handle it.

Anyone else have a deep love for their work-life balance program? Tell me I’m not the only one.

In my first post on how to develop managers, I talked about uncovering manager development opportunities. Today we’ll talk about how to structure your organization so the managers want to get involved with their own development.

Hire right

It starts with the hire. If you hire someone who is comfortable with what they can already do and isn’t interested in doing anything more, then you’re probably going to have difficulty working with them. One of my favorite songs uses this lyric, and I repeat it to myself often when things start to get a little out of my comfort zone:

Somewhere in the grand design, it’s good to be unsatisfied. It keeps the faith and hope a little more alive.

There’s nothing wrong with finding someone who is not satisfied with where they are currently Continue Reading »

Interested in growing your employee referral recruitment but not sure how to get started? Today we’ll look at a few ways to encourage the process as well as a few ideas to keep it from getting out of hand (the “good old boy” system, people trying to circumvent the process, etc.).

What and Why

Employee referrals are a great way to save time and effort in your recruiting. According to the annual CareerXroads surveys on sources of hire, referrals are the #1 source for recruiting new employees. When it comes down to it, using referrals can shorten the recruiting process, fill positions with better-qualified candidates, and save money on advertising and other related costs. Continue Reading »

We’ve all seen them. They drag their crusty, misshapen forms around, spreading despair and agony in their wake. No, I’m not talking about trolls, I’m talking about HR people! We’ve all worked with them before, but some might look at you and think that you fit the bill. Here are a handful of signs you might be turning into one of them!

1. You secretly cheer when it’s time to put an employee on a performance improvement plan
2. You have immense pride in the fact that your department has resisted that newfangled “Human Resources” title and still proclaims itself “Personnel”
3. You love creating new policies
4. When an interviewee asks you why you like working there, you give them a blank stare
5. In order to save money on healthcare benefits you tell your employees to Google their symptoms Continue Reading »

We’ve been going through a few interview rounds for a Subcontracts Administrator position lately, and it never ceases to amaze me that some people still fail to prepare adequately. No, I’m not talking about knowing how to answer the silly “What’s your greatest weakness?” question. I’m talking about being excited, upbeat, and ready to talk about how you are the perfect fit for the job.

We interviewed more than half a dozen people in the first round. Three of those were lukewarm and honestly left me wondering if they really wanted a job at all. Two of those were both enthusiastic and qualified. One of those was both very enthusiastic and very overqualified. Three of those people are coming back in to interview with us again, and I already have an idea of which one will be the final selection Continue Reading »

When you’re trying to learn about an organization’s corporate culture, values, and  beliefs, you need to pay attention to the available information to get a good feel for it. One of my friends is looking at applying to a local private Christian school, and I went to their website to print the application for him to complete.

While the application starts off like any other (job history, availability, work preferences, etc.), it gets into some very meaty questions near the end. If I was looking for a job with this organization, I would be reading those questions very closely Continue Reading »

If you’ve been looking for some corporate culture examples, look no further. I’ve pulled together a handful of ideas that you can put into action to help your employees become raving fans of the organization. Some of them are easy to implement in the short term, others might take a little more work to get started, but all of them can make a difference!

Remember, great companies don’t just happen. They are intentional creations that require hard work and dedication, but they’re worth it. Continue Reading »