At McNak we believe that a happy team is a healthy team, one that has work life woven with a balance of business success and personal success. This business philosophy is especially important for those with children. While sometimes challenging to achieve, we encourage our parents to celebrate firsts with their children. By providing an ability for this to take place we are reciprocated with a highly dedicated team who’s work performance probably exceeds many of our competitors. If work couldn’t be fun why do it? Just as important is making it to the annual sport day or first day of swimming lessons.

To view the complete 2010 Progressive Employers of Canada list click here.

Congratulations to all  the organizations who made the list. These employers are among a select group of “mom-friendly” employers who are leading progressive change in the Canadian workplace for working parents and their families.

Please share your personal work experiences relating to unique ways of celebrating diversity in the workplace relating to children as well as work life balance. We can always be inspired!

What’s your recipe for social media in its abilities to show who you really are, or are you not yet ready to share?  Mat Wilcox, CEO and founder of  public relations and social media firm Wilcox Group says “if you are not in social media you are a dinosaur and missing key opportunities and potentially doing your company harm.”

The focus now shifts to the legacy of the Games.  Of course, there is much debate about whether the billions spent will be worth it; will the City, Province, Country see a lasting return on the huge investment?  I believe that this question, while understandable in the political arena, is overly passive.  Instead of waiting for the legacy to arrive, the right question for us as citizens and – for the readers of this blog – employers to ask is: what have we learned, and what positive change can we bring on the ebb of the incredible spirit that embodied the Games?

For me, one of the most striking opportunities for lasting impact comes from the Paralympic movement.  USA Paralympic skier Ralph Green stated “The Olympics are about how much can be achieved in sport; the Paralympics are about how much can be achieved in life.”  Many of us were captivated by the incredible displays of athleticism and perseverance of Brian McKeever and Lauren Woolstencroft in their multi medal performances.  However, what strikes me more than what they, and other Paralympians do on the field, is what they deal with everyday.  While we have come a long way with accessibility, let’s face it, managing life’s daily tasks is tougher if you are in a wheelchair or visually impaired.  These athletes, and all persons with disabilities, persevere every minute of every day, overcoming obstacles that most people don’t even know are there.

As employers we are always in search of that candidate who possesses those elusive traits of adaptability, problem solving skills, loyalty and dedication. They are the traits that are near impossible to teach, which form the fabric of positive corporate cultures, and provide the foundation for competitive advantage. However statistics still show that persons with disabilities, whose daily routines call for these characteristics at off-the-chart levels, are in many cases still dramatically underemployed when compared to the overall workforce.

What a powerful legacy it would be if we could remember how we were moved by the images and stories of the Paralympics, and overcome some of the stigmas and barriers that still exist in the workplace for persons with disabilities.  I am confident that we will all be better off for it.

If you are interested in making a start, check out www.linkup.ca

This guest post was written by: Matt Brown

Matthew Brown is the VP of Human Resources at Credential Financial Inc. Credential  offers Canadian  credit unions and independent investment firms an integrated range of wealth management and investment solutions to meet the financial needs of Canadians  In his spare time Matt is an avid triathlete.  He is legally blind and a proud supporter of the CNIB.

In this exciting time leading up to the Vancouver Winter Olympics, there is a certain buzz about town – traffic will be crazy, visitors will flock by the 1000′s and most importantly, dreams will come true! All the dreams that were once sparked by a goal and the question of “What if I could…”

At Lululemon, we are maniacal about goal setting. Within your first week, you will develop your own amazing hedgehog and set 1, 5 and 10 year goals. Your goals are broken down into categories of Career, Health and Personal with by-when dates of when they will be achieved. Some of these may be BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) and some may feel totally achievable – either way – they are written down and plastered (literally!) around the halls and on the walls of the office. That way everyone else knows what you are trying to accomplish and can help you get there! (Chip’s goal: to do the Grouse Grind the same number of times in a year as his age!)

This has inspired a culture of attracting high performing, goal oriented, boundary-pushers who care about their health and see the glass ¾ full! Kind of like the Olympics, it creates a buzz about the office, daily. Because every day is a day a goal can be achieved and we are all one step closer to realizing the dream!

Wanna lead like Lululemon? Get your egos outta the way – and get every employee to start drafting their goals! Organizations don’t need more people. Organizations need people who will come alive! Help your people come alive and they will contribute in ways you’d never have dreamed of. (And then you might need to hire more people as you will have inspired some to go off and pursue their goals. Isn’t that awesome? Bonus: they will leave as your biggest raving fans!)

The time is right now. Set goals. Take yourself on. The world is waiting for you!

(A great clip brought to you by Matt Corker, Champion of Community @ NoMoSolo and Olympic Volunteer extraordinaire!)

Go Canada Go!

This guest post was written by:   Stephanie Corker Irwin

Stephanie Corker Irwin is the Head of Recruitment at Lululemon athletica. When she is not in downward facing dog, she is a keen triathlete and a buzzing entrepreneur with the launch of her first business: NoMoSolo, coming to Vancouver March 24^th.  (Yep, it was on her goals!)

One of the biggest challenges in corporate culture is finding ways to effectively measure and gauge the strength of your culture. Over the past decade companies have used various survey methodologies in an attempt to uncover the truth about their cultures with the most popular one being an Employee Engagement Survey. The problem is that these surveys are time consuming, difficulty to analyze without outside support, and require a fair investment to implement.

The answer for companies who aren’t ready to take the plunge into instituting a full-blown employee engagement survey actually comes from the world of customer experience. By combining two questions together you can create an easy to use survey that’s fast and efficient, and so simple to complete that your response level will also be considerably higher (important with any type of survey).

First, we need to talk about the Net Promoter Score (NPS).  NPS was designed to measure how likely clients are to recommend a product or service to a friend. Satmetrix Systems, the company behind NPS, researched companies that experienced above average profitable growth and their research showed that customers who answered one simple question with a 9 or 10, are promoters of your business, customers who answer 7 or 8 are passive, and anyone that ranks your company 6 or less is actually a detractor – they are highly likely to actively recommend that people not do business with you. The question, “How likely are you to recommend our product or service to a friend or colleague?”

Here’s how to modify the NPS for a simple corporate culture survey: take the Net Promoter Score question and alter it slightly to focus on your employees’ perception of your business instead of your customers:

1. On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to recommend to a friend or family member that they come work at our company?

2. If you gave a score of 8 or less, what would need to change in order for your answer to be a 9 or 10?

Using these two questions you can rapidly put a corporate culture survey in place. Although this will not give you the richness of a full Employee Engagement Survey, these two questions will provide you valuable insight into the core areas that you need to pay attention to now.

*If you’re interested in learning more about Net Promoter Score, Harvard Business Review has a fantastic article that summarizes the entire concept entitled, “One Number You Need to Grow” .

This guest post was written by:

Mike Desjardins

Mike Desjardins is the Driver (CEO) at ViRTUS (www.virtusinc.com), an organizational development consulting firm with expertise in strategic planning and implementation, leadership development, change management and succession planning for medium to large organizations. He regularly blogs at www.mikedesjardins.com.

I got a unique opportunity to have dinner with their CEO Tony Hsieh & their COO Alfred Lin.  The following day which was Saturday they set up a 90 minute exclusive tour for 12 of us followed by an additional 90 minute  behind the scenes Q&A session where they really opened up to us.

To start with – I was intrigued and a little bit cynical.  Where they REALLY as good as all this press was saying ?

I’d been the Chief Operating Officer for 1-800-GOT-JUNK? during the heyday of the companies growth and cultural buzz.  During the midst of my tenure I was lucky to be there when we ranked #1 Company to Work For in BC two years in a row by BC Business Magazine and then ranked #2 in all of Canada to Work For.  I knew how the whole culture thing worked.  I saw how we cranked it up – and I saw it go up and down at various points during our growth.  We were having tours & Q&A’s of our company every Friday during those days too.  Were they really this good ? What did they do differently ?

I’d also helped build a couple other companies over the years with awesome cultures. College Pro Painters was where I cut my teeth with culture, and Ubarter.com was where I had fun trying it the dotcom way.  1-800- GOT-JUNK? was where we nailed it.

So with Zappos, I just wanted to see if they were REALLY as good as all their press said (and I’ve had lots of experience getting Free PR too)…..

Here is what I learned at Zappos.  I wouldn’t say I was blown away – I wasn’t – but it was damn good and I learned.  I was and still am in awe of HOW DEEPLY rooted their CEO & COO both live the core values that eminate throughout the company.  I have to go back on a weekday now too – to be fair – in an office that seats 700 people only about 20 were milling about.  My bet is the energy is mind blowing when they bring me back.

Key Points I saw and learned:

—First 10 hires are the most important people to ever hire.  They hire everyone else and they set the direction of the company culturally.

—Core values first…Make all your decisions based on them.  They asked employees what the core values should be and they call each other on them daily.

—They grade employees on how they are living the core values in all roles, two times a year.

—They bring job candidates from the airport in a shuttle. And after they drop off the candidate they ask the driver for his thoughts on the candidates fit culturally – the interview starts at the airport.

—To figure out your company core values they really pushed to have us ask ourselves what are our own personal core values….the company values come out of those.

—Core values should be short phrases not just single words like “passion”

—They tell the emloyees that they are responsible for care taking the core values.

—Culture is like what makes a flock of birds work with out leaders as they all fly and turn as a group. It’s their cultural DNA.

—As their CEO Tony said – if you don’t fire people for not following core values they become a meaningless plaque on the wall

—In 2003 they decided they wanted to be about customer service. So they cut a profitable model of drop shipping to REALLY focus on Customer Experience – and um – it’s working.

—Most important thing they’ve done is exceed expectations.

—Every year they print and give out a Culture Book (I got copies of 2008 & 2009) and it is only edited for grammar and spelling.

—Tony is obsessed with Happiness  – and suggests we all read the “Happiness Hypothesis”

—I think their quirky decorating of all workstations is a little bit too cluttered, dusty, and could use a few days of junk removal – but if that’s the only negative I found then even a guy with all my A.D.D. could turn a blind eye.

These guys GET Culture.  I only wish I could buy shares in the company.  Too bad Amazon bought the whole company for over $900 Million a few months ago

This guest post was written by:

Tony Hsieh, Cameron Herold, Alfred Lin

Cameron Herold

Founder, BackPocket COO
www.BackPocketCOO.com

Monday, September 23rd, 1996.  That was the day our company was born.

Today, we celebrate 13 years of doing what we love, and doing what we do best….

Ever since that magical day in 1996 McNak has stayed true to its roots and continues to colour outside the lines. We are still crazy about positive experiences after all these years, McNak enjoys every day conjuring up new ways to make ourselves and others smile. And yes we will always be a remarkable staffing company, but we’d really just like  to make someone’s day a bit brighter.

Our commitment to fun lives on. Its just the McNak way.

Happy Birthday McNak!

~Sarah McNeill and Cheryl Nakamoto

photo credit: Thomas Hawk

Consider this – a team with only great visionary thinkers but no one to lead them to the desired result.  All you have is one great party! To quote General George S. Patton, ‘If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.’

We were so interested in the effect of the right mix of people on teams that we’ve incorporated this into our business model so that we can help other companies capitalize on synergies. Our key Consultant on Talent Diversification, Sandra Mebs, says that ‘by measuring existing team dynamics you can gain valuable insight into who you need to have on your team.  This knowledge is so powerful when you are engaged in the process of building high performance work teams. ‘

So before your next hire, promotion or team building retreat, consider the personality traits on your teams and what might be missing that takes your group to higher level performance and overall happiness. Having the right collection of superheros on your team will make the difference.

~ McNeill Nakamoto

Has social networking passed traditional online job boards yet?

Several ‘McNakers’ attended BCBusiness magazine’s “Doing Business in Tough Times, Proven Strategies That Work” seminar last week.   This is the video which was featured at the event.   Peter Legge and  Joe Segal were very inspirational speakers.

What are you going to do to ‘be bold’?