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Ice, Ice, Baby! How Snow Days And Talent Are Linked

camera_actionI know it’s Valentine’s Day, but if you’re reading this and you live in the Southeast or Northeast US, or just the Eastern US at this point, you are done with winter. If you are in the West, you just want to stop hearing about our winter woes.

Snow, ice, rain – it is making life, work and school, much harder. For those of us in the East, we’re finding out how well we can function when we can’t get into work, we can’t get our kids to school and when we are generally miserable and can’t concentrate.

This is where the talent you have working for you really comes into play. Are they able to keep going and keep your business going in tough times?

Here’s a quick and fun example of the types of people that I would like to have working for me at a time like this. If you haven’t seen it yet, this is how a private school in North Carolina announced their school would be closed.

OK, now you may have found that I'm a little geeky (and too 80’s for some of you younger people), but the real lesson is that they effectively communicated a message, likely made those going through a tough time smile a little bit, and did it in an innovative way.

This is not only about hiring someone who is fun to be around or will make you laugh all the time. It’s about those intangibles that are going to have a real impact on your business. It’s about people who will innovate, go the extra mile, motivate others and be willing to look for diverse solutions to a problem.

So, how do you find these great people? By working with your recruiters and recruiting partners to help them understand your business and your culture. What types of people have been successful in the past? Who is there now and what has been their career path? 

Especially in markets where great talent is hard to find and harder to recruit, having a good sense for these intangibles is critical. As we all know in the East right now, when times are hard and headcount is low, having people in place that you can count on in a storm (even an ice, ice storm) can warm your heart on a cold day. Even a snowy Valentine’s Day in the East.

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