These are quotes which stood out to me, possibly for use in a sermon someday. Their presence here does not mean I agree with them, it merely shows that I might want to reference them later. The default view is five random selections. Use the tag list on the right to view all quotes relevant to that theme.
Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, March 4, 2001:
Retaining Key Staff: What High-Tech Employees Say versus What They Do
Summary:
Never listen to what people say in response to a survey: asking high-tech employees what will keep them in their jobs provides very different answers than the factors that actually drive retention.
Getting and keeping good people is one of the greatest problems facing Internet companies. Even with the latest slump in the industry, we still face negative unemployment among people who understand the Internet.
We have all seen the clueless ads looking for Java programmers with ten years' experience. Indeed, those ads started appearing back when not even James Gosling would have qualified. The real issue is not so much number of years as it is amount of insight and skills which translate into real experience. In the human interface field experience is largely driven by the number and diversity of user tests somebody has observed. Some usability professionals run a test per week; others may only get exposure to real people a few times per year.
Assume that you have succeeded in hiring an excellent staff. How to keep it?
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in January 2001, Dr. David Finegold from the University of Southern California presented an interesting study of employee retention in high-tech companies.
The most important finding in the study was that what employees say will keep them in the company is quite different from those factors that actually determine whether they quit. We have seen similar findings in many other studies of very different issues, which is why I always caution against believing what people say in response to a survey. Never listen to what people say. Instead look at what they do. What employees say is important for making them stay at their current company:
Work/life balance
Job security
Financial rewards
Professional career satisfaction
Degree of influence over own work
These all sound very important, right?
Well, that's not what makes highly valued employees stay in the high-tech companies in the study.
After running a multiple regression analysis, Dr. Finegold found that there was no positive effect of work/life balance on the retention of staff. People may say that they like to spend time with their family, but giving them such time doesn't make them stay with the company. Self-reported surveys are always a weak source of data, but people's responses are particularly unreliable when it comes to sensitive issues or questions where certain answers are deemed more socially acceptable than others.
Pay for individual performance (typically salary and bonuses) did not score highly as a way of keeping employees, except for men under 30. The only type of financial rewards that increased retention for any other group was rewards based on over-all company performance (typically stock options).
Interestingly, having a viable and well-communicated strategy for success was important for making employees identify with the company but did not make them stay with the company.
The top three factors in retaining staff were:
career advancement
financial rewards based on company performance
innovation and risk
The high score for innovation and risk may be a peculiarity of high-tech professionals, but if those are the types of people you want to keep, you have to give them bleeding-edge assignments.
A Swiss man visiting Sydney, Australia pulls up at a bus stop where two
locals are waiting. "Entschuldigung, koennen Sie Deutsch sprechen?" he
asks. The two Aussies just stare at him. "Excusez-moi, parlez vous
Francais?" he tries. The two continue to stare blankly. "Parlare
Italiano?" No response. "Hablan ustedes Espanol?" Still nothing. The
Swiss guy gives up and drives off.
The first Aussie turns to the second and says, "Y'know, maybe we should
learn a foreign language." "What for?" says the other. "That guy knew
four languages, and it didn't do him any good!"
Commemoration of Charles Williams, Spiritual Writer, 1945
It may be possible for each of us to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbour. The load, or weight, or burden, of my neighbour's glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you may talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and corruption such as you now meet if at all only in a nightmare.
All day long we are in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in light of these overwhelming possibilities it is with awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never met a mere mortal, Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations, these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit -- immortal horrors or ever lasting splendours.
Life is like playing the violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes along.
First and foremost, find out what it is you’re about, and be that. Be what you are and don’t lost it... It’s very hard to be who we are, because it doesn’t seem to be what anyone wants. -- Norman Lear