Wednesday, June 9. 2010At What Point Does A Company Develop Its Own Culture.......John Linton ..........or is that some sort of PR myth? Too many things to do in too little time is a situation that almost everyone who has a 'real' job often experiences....and in tough times this situation always get's worse. I'm sure most people in commercial life believe they work hard and effectively and deliver great value to their employers - and while I've always thought that the majority of those people probably do.......over the past year or so I have become not so sure. I have begun to wonder if Exetel's 'culture' is a positive or negative aspect of our 'being' in the event that we have a culture at all. I have done a reasonable amount of interviewing of people during my commercial life and have been responsible for hiring (directly) more than several hundred people over that time and (indirectly) for hiring well over 1,000 people (and, yes, I actually keep a record of the people I have hired since the very first one - though there are some gaps). Generally speaking my personal track record in 'hiring successfully is very good with very few 'failures' but lately I think I am losing my 'touch' - not so much in hiring people who don't work out (though there have been one or two of those over the past almost seven years of Exetel's existence) but in deciding to not offer jobs to people who perhaps ten years ago I would not have hesitated in hiring. I'm not sure that I have changed or whether the Australian commercial work place culture has changed over that time ...... I'm pretty sure it is the latter though I by no means dismiss the 'fact' that I have also changed my views over that time. This has been brought in to perspective for me over the past three months as we have looked for 'more experienced/older' new personnel rather than pursuing our long held policy of hiring bright graduates who have either just completed university or who have 'bummed around' for a couple of years traveling and/or doing non-career jobs. The advantage of hiring 'unspoiled' people is that they have picked up no bad habits and the disadvantage is, of course, that they have zero real experience of the work place....the former is always a plus if you are able to offer the right training and experience processes. Lately, and for that matter a year ago and several times before that, we have had the need to hire a person with a lot of experience for a position and have either advertised ourselves or have asked a personnel agency to assist us find a person with particular skills. In all of those instances but one (we hired a really great senior systems administrator some five years ago who has grown, built and maintained our now some 100 servers from then to today) we have failed to hire a single person in Australia above the recent graduate level. Now that is clearly our own, and in particular, my own failings in this part of running a business. The sort of positions we have tried to recruit for range through a General Manager, National Sales Manager, Marketing Manager, Operations Manager and also include a number of senior technical competencies in a range of networking aspects of the business. In each case when I have interviewed an applicant for these positions I have seldom got past the first two or three minutes before 'deciding' that Exetel was just not a good fit for the various different people's career/working day needs. What always puts me off are the, more than reasonable questions about 'working hours' and 'other benefits' that most people seem to concentrate on. I have got far too used to working in smaller companies where deriving the revenue and profit to survive makes the concept of 'working hours' something of no consideration at all in getting a job done and the benefits of the job are that you are paid what you asked to be paid and you take care of your own 'other benefits' because your employer pays what you ask for (and keeps increasing your remuneratio and responsibilities). I only mention those two points because in several interviews with 'mature' and 'skilled' applicants yesterday it really irritated me early in the interviews to have a range of, to me, petty issues, raised in a serious conversation. Clearly I have been away from 'main stream commercial life' for far too long and have become immersed in Exetel's "culture" of do it now/do it right the first time/get on with the next thing without pausing for self/other congratulation because the more things you do more quickly and the faster you learn the faster your career develops.....and if something goes wrong, which it will, don't try "buck passing" because no-one will blame you for your mistakes they will only 'blame' you if you don't fix them as Perhaps it's time to let someone else 'influence' or re-define Exetel's work practices? Then again - I have always preferred to work with very bright people who regard perfection as the only standard wotht achieving until something better is found. 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I wouldn't blame a skilled employee for asking working hours etc because these people have a family to feed. Unlike you and other 2 directors, they do not own the company and what they worked must be paid accordingly. I know almost every small business owner expects their employees to work as long as possible without extra payment (my wife had this bitter experience). So I think based on extel's "culture", you have no choice but continue to hire fresh graduates who may be more willing to work longer hours.
Comments (5)
I am in totally agree with Anonymous, people actually like to have a work life balance these days. Whats the point of earning "heaps" of money if you never have any time to spend it with the family.
I think you need to come out of the 50's. Comment (1)
I have my own solution to this problem. However, neither employer nor employee tend to like it.
Contractors! It's simple, I will do whatever you want, whenever you want, for as long as you want and at 100% effort as long as you are prepared to pay for it. It is a very simple and fair system, but some realities must be faced, i.e. eomployers can't get work done at lowest rates by "encouraging" employees to work longer hours and employees may realise their not worth what they think. I have been contracting for 12 years (4 years in current role) and I have no intention of changing. Comment (1)
Some thoughts;
from an employees persepctive, you are comparing two types of candidates. a) Younger (probably less commitments, financial and otherwise) and b)Older/Experience (probably a mortgage and family to support). From the younger persons perspective, they have less to loose, and everything to gain. From the older/experienced persons perspective they are seeking a commitment from the employer for compensation for their time/effort/skill. Add to this that as a smaller company, there was no doubt the promise (and actuall oppurtunity for) rapid career and salary progression. As a medium-larger company running less in 'start-up' mode (looking for more senior roles from the outset) there is most probably the expectation that there is less oppurtunity for rapid career advancement. Whether this is the case or not, an experience employee will probably want something in writing as they may have been 'burnt' before. For directors/shareholders - input = salary + % profit. For inexpereinced but hardworking graduated, input = salary + bonus + promotion, which may not be available at another organisation. For an experienced senior role without a finanical interest, their input = salary. I guess they want their hours spelt out clearly from the outset! Comment (1)
I have worked in several companies over my career and I think I understand many aspects of working conditions and different people.
I don't think I've ever, at any stage of my working life, ever asked about working hours/times - I've always assumed that working hours are whatever it takes. Of course, I have never worked for a government organisation or a bank/insurance company. For a professional is there ever anything called "working hours"? Comments (5)
Yes, for a professional there are 'normal' working hours from 8-5 or whatever, and there is extra work sometimes after that or on weekends or whatever when necessary.
It's a bit like unlimited off peak, it's nice to get that professional in sometimes on a weekend when there is a need but if you do it too often you run the risk of the employee asking you to look elsewhere for talent. Comment (1)
Maybe John's definition as "professional" is different from today's Australia workplace? Back in the dot com era, every programmer was considered as "prefessional". Things have changed now. Nowadays IT is no longer a "cool" job. IT workers are just like other office workers, or even assembly workers (in some software companies). There are not much "above average" career or salary upgrade path, therefore IT worker are reluctant to work extended hours without justified reward.
My definition of "professinal" would be people like lawyers, doctors, accountants, etc, who generally needs some kind of govornment certificate to start with, and have the potential of opening their own business. In this sense, an IT contractor or independant consultant may be professional, but all other IT worker who work as employees, not considered as "professional". Comments (5)
I agree that words like "professional" are so abused as to have little meeting.
I think of any manager as a professional especially in the communications industry where technologies continue t be created process through a life cycle and then die several times within a working 'life time'. I see almost all people working in communications as being in that category and all people having career growth and development. So I don't see programmers the way you do - our programmers have very obvious career paths in terms of both increasing monetary remuneration and increasing knowledge and responsibility. In any event I don't see any job in the communications industry as being capable of being done consistently during "working hours" nor do I see/have ever seen anyone with any sort of expectation of that happening being of much use to any communications company - irrespective of size. Comments (5)
I have previously refrained from commenting on the thread. However, after several viewer comments and your responses, I do have one thing to add.
I very much respect your views on the communications industry in general. Although I believe the media comments on your views being 'jurassic' are incorrectly applied to that industry knowledge, I think they probably do apply to your views of running a company of any size, successful or not. Comments (5)
I cannot see how you could actually know anything about how I may or may not 'manage' my responsibilities to shareholders, customers, suppliers and employees.
So it would seem to me that it would be impossible for you to form any reasonably based views on my competence or otherwise in that capacity. Perhaps you could spell out/list the key qualities of a 'good' manager? ...and then show why you can show that I do not possess them? Comments (5)
Nothing is impossible, unless you monitored and read all employee external communications, which it would seem not to be outside the realms of possibility, but highly unlikely.
A businessman tries to get as much out of his resources as he can with as little cost as possible. That in itself should clearly explain how a good businessman cannot be a good manager. Also, a good manager not only listens to others and picks up what conforms with his views, but also has the humility to take on board what does not conform - without being defensive. Comments (5)
Your 'clarification' clarifies nothing.
You, nor anyone else outside Exetel, can have absolutely no idea of my management skills or lack of them....few people within Exetel can have any even halfway complete view on that topic. I asked you to provide examples which you don't appear to have done. Please don't make such silly comments in the future. As for you silly comment that "a businessman" cannot be "a good manager" is th sheerest nonsense - even assuming such meaningless sterotypical 'appellations' do anything but make the user of them even more erroneously irrelevant. Comments (5)
I don't need to - you have provided enough examples yourself here.
I don't expect this to be published, so feel free to discard and let it seem you have had the final say - another example of good management. Comments (5)
Yes you do need to.
Instead of making stupid sniping comments all you need to do is list 3 - 5 qualities of a good manager of people/organisations/whhatever and show how my long years in 'management' demonstrate that I don't possess and/or exercise those qualities. Posting that, effectively, "you are an idiot" constitutes nothing but your own lack of manners....it demonstrates nothing else. Now either "put up or shut up" Comments (5)
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