I want to take a second to point out a post that my friend, and former classmate, wrote about employee retention. His company has the same problem as a lot of companies: retaining Gen-Y employees, aka “keeping the young kids around”. He points to 3 main reasons: “Economics, Environment, and Rewards”. It is an intriguing, well written piece and it definitely needed a shout out!
As of today, I am honored to be a blogger for BrazenCareerist.com. Check out the site and my sweet profile!
Co-Working is something that I have been thinking about for a while now. Then I saw this article and that solidified my position on it. It’s a great idea. It is a great balance and middle ground for those that could telecommute but don’t want to give up office interaction completely. It would shorten the commute but still allow for team collaboration. Win Win. This article and blog post are great starting points for broaching the subject at your current jobs.
If I had a lot of money I would invest it right here and now. The new solid state drives are killer. They actually look semi-affordable too. Too bad the largest capacity you can get is 120GB. Looking beyond their capacity, they scream like a newborn with an ear infection. With read speeds of 120MB/s and write speeds equally mind blowing at 40-100MB/s. The speeds vary whether the SSD is based on SLC (single level cell) or MLC (multi-level cell) technology.
With drives this fast and affordable we are looking at the equivalent of the industrial revolution for storage devices. This breakthrough is as major as when the video processor broke free from the processor and became its own uber-powerful add-in card. To put it in short easy terms it’s as big as Voodoo was in the 90’s.
There are two major players in this SSD market; Super Talent, a major memory maker, and OCZ, also a major memory maker that has recently reached into new markets with cooling units and power supplies. If I were you I would invest in both. How much for god-like speed you ask? It’s only $449 for a 60GB, don’t whine about it, just do it. Buy one.
Here is another beautiful X-bit link if you would like to know more.
Being a long time fan boy of AMD, it hurts me to see Intel slashing its prices. Although un-like other fan boys I know when it’s time to jump ship (only for a little while). For only 25 bucks more than AMD’s cheapest quad core, you’ll get Intel’s quad core which spanks AMD’s best quad core in almost every benchmark, ouch. By the way, I do mean on DDR2 mobo’s, I’m not counting Intel’s advantage with DDR3, because that would be even more painful.
For me it’s not about brand loyalty, if you are a sheep then maybe it is for you. If you are a true geek or nerd or whatever you call yourself it’s about speed, pure and unadulterated speed, (and cost). That magical price/performance ratio. So all hail to the new price/performance king, Intel.
Here’s the link to another beautiful xbitlabs article, it includes the new pricing.
Google, oft the trend setters, have a position within the company of Chief Culture Officer. This person is in charge maintaining and innovating the culture at Google to keep their employees happy. The fact that this position exists shows their complete commitment to their employees, their happiness, and most importantly, employee retention. At Google, the position is held by the person who is also head of Human Resources.
In my opinion, this works because CCO is now her full time job. This position cannot be a part time job. More companies need to adopt the position and seriously work on making it a priority. Most companies care about their employees and “try” to keep them happy, but this is rarely achievable. Money is rarely the only reason employees leave their companies. This is where the CCO comes into play. When it comes to employee retention, having a CCO can make a huge difference.
This position has unique challenges for companies of all sizes. Large companies have the money and man power but have to work on keeping thousands happy. Smaller companies might not have the man power or money but have less people to work with. Some companies don’t make much of an effort to keep employees happy and some try a good amount but that is still not enough. In today’s work environment, there is always someone else, like Google, going the extra mile or 10 miles just to attract and retain top employees.
The CCO is the new, progressive position to start hiring and utilizing for companies of all sizes. This is increasingly important given the current environment of the IT industry, where employees, especially Gen Y ones, are job hopping for more than money.
In today’s work environment, more than it has ever been before, the youngest generation in the office (currently Gen Y) is having the greatest impact. The twenty something generation is taking over and making a huge impact in the business world. The reason is that we don’t feel the corporate ladder is for us. We believe we operate in a world where those rules don’t apply to us and therefore we can make the biggest difference in our jobs. Unlike generations past, we feel that we are free and can make waves or job hop with little consequences; and we are right.
This is a result because now-a-days, especially in the technology field, the younger generation are also the most skilled and progressive employees. No longer are the days where you must apprentice a master of his craft for years before becoming proficient at something. Now you can learn the newest technology and be hired within months and be teaching the old masters how it works. This has allowed us to make the greatest impact.
Just look at Napster and Facebook. Those are trend setting, million dollar companies started by college students. Modern technology and Open Source software have made entrepreneurial endeavors easier than ever to start up. Generation Y feels that there are countless opportunities at their fingertips and has the confidence to take advantage of them.
