Hiring Tips, Trends and Insights Blog

New Hires, New Potential: Making the Most of Your New Kids on the Block

First, a clarification: we’re not actually going to be talking about the New Kids on the Block in this article. Perhaps it was a bit misleading to use that phrase in the title, but we meant it in a purely colloquial tone. Unless, of course, you have actually managed to hire the New Kids on the Block, and in that case, good for you. That Jordan Knight looks like a real forward-thinker.

For the rest of us who find ourselves sadly Donny Wahlberg deficient, there is still a lot to be learned about how to fully unlock the potential of your newest employees. After all of the hard work you’ve put into recruiting who you’ve deemed to be the best of the best for your company, the last thing you want to do is hinder them (however unintentionally) from fulfilling all the promise they’ve shown. Getting a brilliant person to sign on with you is only half the battle – the other half is allowing and encouraging them to put their talents to work.

So how do you do that? Well, first of ...

Interviewing Tip: Ask your applicants to teach you something

The average interview is very little more than an extended version of the infamous conversation, "Hey, Bob, how are you?" "Good! You?!" "Good, Thanks!"

But you aren't average, and neither is your company. It's why you're looking to hire new people in the first place. We want to help break the usual interview template. Raise your hand if you've been here before: you sit for five minutes while someone fetches the boss, then you get a quick handshake and a talk about the drive in before 45 minutes of business. This invariably gives way to a casual chat while both of you try to make a connection, before one last handshake and a promise to be in touch soon. It doesn't happen on purpose, and neither side of the table wants to be a part of "just another interview". But it's really, really comfortable.

Here's one great way to break out of the boring: have every person you interview teach you something. It could be literally anything, personal or professional, as long as they think ...

The Agony of Retreat

There are few phrases that strike more fear in employee’s hearts than the dreaded words... “company retreat.”

_{Runners-up: “performance review,” “pay freeze,” and “Donna from accounting is selling Pampered Chef again.”}

Oh, it didn’t always used to be that way. The concept of a company retreat didn’t even exist back when the very first office-workers gathered around the very first watercooler, and there’s good reason for that: bosses back then didn’t care about boosting employee morale or fostering workplace creativity. You came to work, you put in 16 quality hours, and you were damn grateful for the privilege. Also, if you’ve ever seen an episode of Mad Men, you know that there was absolutely no need for retreats in those days. Who wants to go off-site when you can drink and smoke and be unethical in the comfort of your own office?

_{Ignoring for a moment the blatant sexism, bigotry, and very serious human resources violations, morale was at an all-time high! (For ...}