It is one thing to hire exceptional individuals it is another to hire exceptional individuals who are leaders and who understand the importance of positive energy and the power of working together as a team to achieve dynamic results.

Positive energy flow and teamwork is vital to the long term growth of any establishment. Be aware that negative energy and ego can contaminate an entire establishment – all it takes is one individual.

Creating a strong positive team environment is important. Each individual plays a significant role in the overall energy force contributing positive or negative energy in the workplace. “Teamwork not only allows a person to do what he couldn’t otherwise do; it also has a compounding effect on all he possesses – including talent. A group of talented people committed to working together is a work of art. – John Maxwell

Understanding each team member’s strengths and weaknesses including varying energy levels and pairing up individuals who balance one another to create a team can be beneficial to all. In addition, hire individuals who are willing to learn from one another and support one another’s growth regardless of their position within the company. Look for the greatness within each individual and pair them with teammates who complement one another encouraging growth, support and teamwork.

A Chinese proverb states, “Behind an able man there are always other able men” The truth is that teamwork is at the heart of great achievement. The question isn’t whether teams have value, the question is whether we acknowledge that fact and become better team players – John Maxwell

One is too small a number to achieve greatness. Nothing of significance was ever achieved by an individual acting alone. Look below the surface and you will find that all seemingly solo acts are really team efforts. – John Maxwell

You are only as good as the employees you hire.

This guest post was written by Janis Gall of MAC Marketing Solutions

photo credit: kool_skatkat

1. Ever had a difficult situation where you didn’t want to let someone down with unwelcome news, so you avoided personal contact, and resorted to e-mail? The post, Don’t hide behind email  was selected for WordPress’s Freshly Pressed, and elicited many great comments.
2. Written by one of our Gen Y staff members, the article Facebook friend or foe serves up an interesting perspective on how your activity on Facebook could affect your career.
3. No matter what profession, no matter what stage in our lives, actor Kevin Spacey’s Wise Words can apply to all of us.
4. What do you want to be when you grow up? Vancouverite Sean Aiken set out to do something different. He decided to try out 52 jobs, one week at a time. An inspiring documentary are the results of Sean’s One Week Job project.
5. Here are 4 excellent points from Mike Desjardins of ViRTUS in his article about Influencing Corporate Culture
6. Arianna Huffington’s funny TED Talk about the importance of sleep. It clearly makes sense that sleep is the Ultimate Productivity Tool

This year the McNak blog has seen more page views than ever before. We’d like take this opportunity to thank you all for taking the time to read, comment and share our articles. We have more grand plans for 2012 so watch this space.

Happy New Year!

5 Tips for Onboarding Strategies

Some people may assume I’m focused on training when I say “onboarding,” but the fact is that the employee experience starts in the recruiting stage. With this in mind, here are a few key strategies to help you throughout every phase of the process:

1.  Tailor your recruiting strategies. Your recruiting efforts should be tailored to meet the specific needs of a seasonal workforce. It’s important to make the details of the opportunity clear from the get-go. Also, be wary of how you communicate potential for further employment, as you don’t want folks making assumptions.

2.  Perform due diligence. Don’t skimp on due diligence in collecting legal papers and monitoring employees’ schedules. “A lot of people short-circuit processes like verifying work eligibility or tracking hours correctly. It should go without saying, but you really need to be sure you’re following the law,” says John Rossheim, a senior contributing writer at Monster.com.

3.  Provide proper training. According to Forbes Woman columnist and onboarding expert Emily Bennington, onboarding should focus on integrating new employees in three areas:

• Technical Skills: To what depth of expertise do seasonal employees need to be trained to perform their jobs?
• Company Culture: How thoroughly do seasonal hires need to understand company policies and values?
• Social Integration: In what ways can you connect seasonal employees to your organization so they feel like they are part of the team?

Furthermore, Rossheim suggests designing your seasonal workforce “to accomplish the task at hand, rather than haphazardly training everyone to do everything they may possibly have to do. Specialize rather than throwing everyone into the same bucket.”

4.  Know your capacity upfront. Whether you have a general human resources management system or a hodgepodge of spreadsheets and checklists – it’s important to know your capacity. Can your back-office system efficiently handle an increased volume in applicants and new hires?

5.  Make them part of the team. Seasonal employees can easily feel isolated if an onboarding program doesn’t successfully connect them to the organization. According to Eddie Baeb of Target Corportate Communications, Target is focused on engaging seasonal employees and making them feel just as valued as anyone else from day one. With nearly 40 percent (about 35,800) of seasonal team members joining as permanent employees last year after the holidays, they’ve got this down.

End Things on a Good Note with Offboarding

You may have discovered a few star performers you’d like to bring onto your team permanently. For the rest, though, Bennington says “there’s definitely an opportunity to establish brand ambassadors.” Offboarding provides a chance to make a lasting positive impression, while gaining insight into the worker’s experience.

Standard offboarding practices include surveying workers on their experience. Bennington suggests going beyond surveying, and having one-on-one exit interviews with select employees to get more candid responses.

This guest post was written by: Kyle Lagunas

Kyle Lagunas is the HR Analyst at Software Advice. On the surface, it’s his job to contribute to the ongoing conversation on all things HR. Beyond that, he makes sure his audience is keeping up with important trends and hot topics in the industry. Focused on offering a fresh take on points of interest in his market, he’s not your typical HR guy.

Sarah McNeill talks with Global TV about job discrimination and ethnic names:

I’ve spoken to a number of executives lately who are concerned about their corporate culture and who want to know the key areas for leveraging change. Here are four areas that influence culture directly and are in your control as an executive team: What behaviours we allow (we teach people what okay and not okay) What we reward (monetarily or through praise, promotion, and recognition) Who we hire, what we look for when we hire, and who we help “ … Read More

via Some thoughts on strategy, leadership, and corporate culture.

IAAP is the organization that first created “Secretaries’ Day”, which is now renamed to “Administrative Professionals Day”. It is a day when bosses and businesses are encouraged to honour the work that their administrative staff perform all year long.

The Vancouver chapter of the International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP) is proud to present “Administrative Professionals Day 2011”. This year’s theme is “Celebrate all office professionals”. The chapter invites you and your colleagues to join us at our annual morning event on Wednesday, April 27th in downtown Vancouver. Enjoy our hot breakfast buffet and keynote speaker, Krista Green, who will present “Maximizing Your Effectiveness in Business and in Life”.

Click here to download the event PDF with event details and registration info.

This guest post was written by Sigrid Otto. Sigrid serves on the event committee of the Vancouver chapter of the International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP).

Click on the thumbnails below for more information:

“GrapeJuice” is THE social wine event and auction tailored for wine aficionados both casual and serious. And most importantly, it’s all for a great cause – Big Sisters of BC Lower Mainland.

Once again, GrapeJuice will be a terrific, fun, after work function – it will take place on Thursday, May 5th 2011 at Glowbal Group’s Society in Yaletown between 5:30 and 8:30 pm. Tickets are $100 (a tax receipt is available for a portion of the ticket price) and attendees will be able to sample top wines from both BC and around the world, bid on a wide selection of wines (including some hard to find ones), as well as enjoy some appetizers and entertainment. If you are a wine connoisseur or simply enjoy wine and a great social event, then this event will certainly appeal to you!

This event is limited to 250 people and the last event sold out so get on the list now! Plus, if you choose to donate some wine – whether $30 or $300 value, Big Sisters will provide the donor with a tax receipt. – everyone wins! Big Sisters will of course happily accept cash donations as well if you are unable to attend.

To donate money or purchase tickets call Kelly Morrison at 604.873.4525 ext. 302 or complete the online web form. For information on how to donate wine or contribute to Grape Juice contact Jessica Rozitis.

See you Thursday May 5th, 2011 at Society!!!

Cheers!

Instead, they have facts. Facts about what worked well last year, what skills someone has demonstrated, and about what experiences people bring to the table.

The interesting thing is that these facts are all based in the past. Past success, past performance, past experience. With little faith, these past-based facts can begin to drive future business decisions.

“The team tried that last year and didn’t see any results, so let’s try a different approach.”
“You haven’t proven yourself yet, so I’m not going to give you this upcoming project.”
“That candidate doesn’t come with any experience in our field, so he probably won’t be of any benefit to us.”

The past dictates our future when we solely rely on facts.

Faith, on the other hand, doesn’t need proof or evidence from the past. It doesn’t compare where we are today to where we were. Instead, it looks to where we could be and creates a path from here to there.

In this environment, be it at home, at work, or in the gym, you are surrounded by trust, confidence, and inspiration. You innovate constantly as there is always a new future to be created. You dream big dreams and then turn them into goals. You develop your people before they prove themselves “worthy enough” for that development. You hire based on cultural fit. You take big risks and see what sticks.

For some, running your life (or company) based completely on faith is unbelievable.
For others, it’s the only thing that works.

This guest post was written by Matt Corker, Leadership Development Advisor at lululemon athletica

Matt Corker has a serious addiction to big ideas, bold goals, and strong communities. After working for the University of British Columbia in alumni and student affairs, Matt was drawn to lululemon athletica – a yoga-inspired athletic apparel company that creates components for people to live longer, healthier, more fun lives. In his role of Leadership Development Advisor, Matt is responsible for delivering new-hire orientations and professional development opportunities that empower their great staff to achieve their dreams and live a life they LOVE! Matt has a Bachelor of Commerce in Human Resource Management and International Business from the Sauder School of Business at UBC and will be starting his MBA at the Copenhagen Business School in the fall. He has a strong background in leadership and development and a big heart for social media, inspiring minds, and giving out great high fives. More information about Matt can be found at http://thatsacorker.com.

In today’s rapidly changing world, innovation is key to being competitive. Without innovation, companies and their products quickly become relics of the past – the world keeps turning folks and with it a world of change with every spin.

Despite the never-ending need to innovate on the product side and a robust investment in product innovation and research and development, many companies neglect the innovation on the talent side and with it, leaders are hesitant to innovate from the inside out.

Fear of change results in a state of paralysis and again…if you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backward. Technology, culture, capital, people, and the way they all work together are constantly changing, so if your team isn’t innovating on both a personal and cultural level, you can be assured others are, and in the process, leaving your place in the market, in the dust.

Innovation begins at the personal level – call it your spirit, your heart, your soul or whatever else works for you – but change needs to happen from within before it can be rolled out to a department, an organization, or an industry. And sometimes the most dramatic innovations that positively affect companies aren’t on the product or service side at all, but are aspects addressing the more intangible, such as talent, marketing, process, or culture.

As human beings we must adapt to change – it’s an inherent force of nature – as our environment changes, so must we in order to best thrive in our surroundings. Change isn’t always pleasant, nor is it always a fearless process of flawless execution. Quite often it’s scary, dubious, unsettling and packed full of ‘what-ifs’. But then isn’t that core to all challenges in life? Imagine a life without challenge and without personal growth and innovation…pretty boring stuff.

What all this comes down to is defining innovation and how it fits into your personal world and your company’s culture. Think about innovation differently. Innovate on the very definition of the word and through this process you’ll find personal and professional windows of opportunity for innovation that set you and your company apart from the pack.

Change – it’s a good thing. Well Martha said that until she found herself in a jail cell.

This guest post was written by: Guy Borgford , Vice President Strategy at FGI.com

Guy has worked in digital media and marketing for almost 20 years and has extensive Fortune 500 brand, agency, and publisher experience.  Previously, Guy led global marketing efforts for such sites as RollingStone.com, Rhapsody.com and Film.com, working with clients such as Microsoft, T-Mobile, AT&T, Sony, Coors, Hallmark, Hanes, Anheuser Busch and FOX.   In addition he has also worked with numerous web startups as a senior consultant as is currently the Vice President Strategy for FGI.com whose clients include Jones Soda, Paramount Pictures’ SceneIt?, Microsoft, Lexus and Redhook.