Fast Company Article, Nov. 98 Kari Fruechte The Company of the Future, by Robert B. Reich, Nov. 98, p.19.

Its a sellers market for talent, claims Robert B. Reich in this article about the important practices companies today need to incorporate in order to attract and keep the most talented people. Reich goes on to describe six social glues of the company of the future. These make a lot of sense to me, not only for high-tech, fast-paced, up-and-coming businesses, but also for the smaller companies, organizations, and institutions that are the employers in our rural areas. Ive been working with our Regional School to Work Board in Southwest Minnesota, and one of our goals is to reach businesses concerning the needs of the lifelong learner. Businesses in our area, like those mentioned in this article, are finding their greatest challenge to be attracting and retaining high quality, loyal workers. I felt this article offered some great points for them to consider: 1. Money Makes it Mutual: When we can begin to compare salary offers to top executives and stock market analysts with those offered to sports figures, we see how competitive the world of business is becoming. There is keen competition for talent, and the name of the game is offering a promising company with stock options and flexibility. A feeling of ownership in the company, along with opportunity for high gains is attractive to talented people. 2. Mission Makes a Difference: Talented people want to be part of something they believe in. Focused mission statements that are written to make a real difference are an attraction. 3. Learning Makes You Grow: Talented people want intellectual challenge. Stimulating conversations and access to building relationships with interesting people are sought after. Working for a company must help people become better than they could be working on their own because of the limitless opportunities for individual consulting today. 4. Fun Makes it Fresh: Friendship and fellowship on the job dont need to be frowned upon. Staff interacting in games, with costumes, and at social events has been shown to boost productivity. Adults, like children, learn though play. 5. Pride Makes it Special: The feeling that its a cool place to work or that you work for a prestigious organization makes an employee more loyal. The reputation of managers and CEOs gets around and talented people gravitate toward companies that are not stagnant. 6. Balance Makes it Sustainable: Perks like family leaves, company day care, retreats, sabbaticals, flex-time and flex-place offer employees maximum freedom to get their job done however, whenever and wherever they choose. Employees are given the power to organize their work by themselves. Companies have seen a huge value in giving employees power to say yes to important things that may conflict with regular working hours. An important piece to achieving this balance comes in the orientation of employees and hiring people suited for this type of job freedom. The 21 Century company will not take the loyalty of its people for granted. Employees are looking for the most humane place to work, and deciding who they will work for and work with. Does the U of MN Extension Service meet these goals? In conversations with co-workers, they felt the first step was the most lacking! Monetary perks are few and limited in our organization. Some of that is due to the ties to government, but they felt some is also due to the lack of being entrepreneurial. The flat organizational concept makes it more unclear as to who decides on the monetary perks. The other step coworkers commented on was number six. The more we talked about this, the more it became apparent that we need to exercise our options here and get the people we work with to understand the importance of balancing our work with other parts of our lives. Being tied to other county offices makes this a challenge. Over-all coworkers felt the Extension Service does a pretty good job at many of these ideas, and that is the main reason several people cited they are still in their jobs. Interesting article!

-- Anonymous, November 30, 1998

Answers

Your summary would be greatly enhanced by the use of paragraphs. In addition to making it much easier to read, it organizes thoughts both for the reader and the writer. You gave a good and complete summary, related each point to your work, and presented your discussions with your co-workers. It sounds as if you discssed the article point by point with them. Hopefully it gave everyone something to think about. Did you agree with everything in the article? I have just read "Danger:Toxic Company" from the November issue. According to the author of that article, one of the characteristics of toxic companies is offering stock options. His analysis of stock options is that it offers an incentive for any employee to get rich quick through stock options and then leave the company. It provides an interesting contrast to the view of stock options presented in the article you reviewed. In my experience, one can almost always find someone with an opposite or different point of view from the one presented in an article. Something to think about.

-- Anonymous, December 16, 1998