There’s nothing better than starting a new year. You get to make up fresh spreadsheets filled with hopeful objectives and glance at a clean, white calendar not yet filled with the scratch marks of cancelled appointments or rescheduled meetings. All of our 2014 folders can go in the closet once we go to Staples and buy new containers. Nothing feels better than being organized and starting out the year with a clean slate.
Speaking of slate, our “chalkboard of monthly hires” isn’t clean this month. It already has five new names on it. Chalk dust is something that will never be considered as unclean in our office!
Sitting here thinking about organization I can’t help but let my mind drift to the magical wonder of The Container Store. (www.containerstore.com ) I am, admittedly, addicted to every box, folder, jar, bin and trinket that makes life more organized, clean and helpful. I could spend hours in that store coordinating my pens to match my tape dispenser which color coordinates with the bins I use in my closets that hold every year’s business information I’ve saved since our start in 2006. Lime green and royal blue predominate, but I’m willing to venture more into other color pallets to satisfy my need for it to all look, well, nice.
The Container Store, I discovered while on their website, believes they are an “Organization With Heart”. Many companies say they put their employees first, but in reality I have found this to be an overused, fabricated declaration to entice people to take a new job. The Container Store’s philosophy of “1 Equals 3” (meaning one great hire equals three good hires in terms of business productivity) emphasizes how committed they are to selecting the right employees during their interview process. This selectivity enables them to spend more money training, mentoring, and – drumroll here – paying them significantly more than what their competitors pay their staff. ( I bet they even get an awesome employee discount on their stuff. )Talk about a win-win!
If I could teach my clients one thing in 2015 it would be to adopt this approach – hire carefully, and then treat that hire like gold. Forever.
One of the promises SGC makes to our clients and candidates is to make the process FUN. Going through a job change is serious business. It affects our concentration, our personal lives, our finances, our mental health. We have helped hundreds of people through this progression of a career change and absolutely guarantee you will be comfortable putting your livelihood in our hands. We didn’t coin the idiom of making the process fun – one of our candidates did, and we have used it ever since.
I’m not making any New Years’ Resolutions in 2015 but have already listed goals on the first blank page of my new, beautiful calendar. This years’ goals are lofty, but because I’ve picked “1 Equals 3” employees I have no reservations reaching for the sky. A lot of lucky people are going to find themselves in new careers this year and we are looking forward to making it a seamless process. Fun, too.
I’m off to the Container Store. There’s always something in my life that needs organizing, and I’m just getting started.