HRviews

Employee engagement is not just another HR term. Some companies take this aspect very seriously and they make every possible effort to create a stimulating work environment that ultimately, along with the work itself, will drive the employee engagement rates high. We constantly hear about companies such as Google that they have found the right strategy to attract high potential employees while continuing to meet their expectations post hiring. The new generation of highly tech savvy individuals is living in a fast paced world and which every minute spent either at work or outside of it counts and it needs to be spent the right way: the fun way.

I came across these pictures taken at the Google HQ and they speak for themselves. Employees are offered it all to only expect them in return to be fully committed, inspired and engaged.

A full-size replica of Virgin Atlantic ’s Spaceship One:

To work off the pounds, and the stress:

Stress capsule:

Large boards are available just about everywhere:

Private cabin areas:

Professional massage therapists are available:

This information applies primarily for North Americans. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics has identified 20 jobs that are expected to grow rapidly between now and 2018. These occupations are in high demand now and are expected to continue on this trajectory for the next decade.

Here are the 20 fastest-growing occupations between Now and 2018. If yours is not one of them, don’t worry, just keeping doing a great job and stand out:)

1. Biomedical engineers
2. Network systems and data communications analyst
3. Home health aides
4. Personal and home care aides
5. Financial examiners
6. Medical scientists, except epidemiologists
7. Physician assistants
8. Skin care specialists
9. Biochemists and biophysicists
10. Athletic trainers
11. Physical therapist aides
12. Dental hygienists
13. Veterinary technologists and technicians
14. Dental assistants
15. Computer software engineers, applications
16. Medical assistants
17. Physical therapist assistants
18. Veterinarians
19. Self-enrichment education teachers
20. Compliance officers, except agriculture, construction, health and safety, and transportation

According to reports from the recruitment firm Robert Walters, businesses increased the hiring of HR staff in all disciplines during the second quarter of 2010. HR generalists were most in demand as employers looked for professionals who could perform a variety of duties to help rebuild and/or expand HR functions. Learning and development, recruitment, change management, and compensation and benefits specialists were also highly sought after.

Every job posting mentions the desired number of years of experience. Fair enough, you need to have some or many years of practice and/or expertise in a certain field to be considered for the job. While reading Twyla Tharp’s book “The Creative Habit”, I realized how equally important it is to also explore in an interview the person’s inexperience and readiness to completely embrace a new or untapped challenge. In Twyla’s words:

“Experience – the faith in your ability and the memory that you have done this before – is what gets you through the door. But experience also closes the door. You tend to rely on that memory and stick with what has worked before. You don’t try anything new.
Inexperience is innocence, naivete and humility. It is a powerful ignorance [...], it provides us with a childlike fearlessness that is the polar opposite of the alleged wisdom that age confers to us, the wisdom telling us some goals are foolish, a waste of time, invitation to disaster. In its purest form, inexperience erases fear. You do not know what is and is not possible, therefore everything is possible.
It is that perfect moment of equipoise between knowing it all and knowing nothing that Hemingway was straining for when he said ‘The thing is to become a master and in your old age to acquire courage to do what children did when they knew nothing’. You cannot manufacture inexperience, but you can maintain it and protect what you have.”