I was 24, interviewing for a job in economic development, of which I knew almost nothing about. Moving because of my husband’s job prompted me to start looking in my hometown, and an indirect connection had landed my résumé on the President’s desk. Through conversations with the President, I felt like this interview was just the last step before they would hire me. The board chair was there. I knew him, but not well. He was the mayor of our town when I was growing up. I never will forget what he said to me. “You know, economic development has always been a man’s job.”
Shortly after the Charlottesville riots, I read an article about how the University of Virginia was responding to ensure that they continue to strive to be a diverse community that welcomes all in a safe environment. And it made me think, how can employers do the same? Many employers have diversity and inclusion programs, but are those programs truly successful? The recently publicized anti-diversity manifesto by, a now terminated Google employee, is a severe example of a diversity and inclusion program that may need revamping. I’d be curious to know if that manifesto has prompted Google to review their program.
“Not having a mentor is just stupid,” said a young and successful sales professional in a meeting I attended a few weeks ago. She was giving the group advice on how to be successful in sales. I couldn’t agree with her more. Not having a least one mentor (and seeking to be a mentor to someone else) is just about the dumbest mistake you can make in business. I was fortunate to have a wonderful academic and professional mentor in college (he passed away a few years ago and I still miss his sound advice), and I continue to have
In my first gig out of college as a corporate recruiter, I had responsibility for the grind of hiring classes of customer service reps. Volume recruiting at its finest. When I was trained by a co-worker on the company’s process for screening applicants, my fellow team member told me that the process used to include screening people out who were “job hoppers”- those that shown through their resume- couldn’t seem to stay at one job for more than a year or two at a time. Then the lawyers got involved and told us we couldn’t screen people out for that.
2016 showed us, at least in terms of the popularity of blog posts, that it was a year of innovation. More than half of our top 10 blog posts for the year focused on innovation in the workplace: You Can Hire for Fit AND Diversity: How the Most Innovative Companies Hire The Name of the Game is FREEDOM: How Innovative Companies Motivate, Get, and Retain the Best… Innovate or Die? And the Best Places to Work Rules to Preserve Freedom and Culture: How Innovative Companies Go about Rule-Making How Neuroscience Is and Will Revolutionize HR Others that came