In larger companies, it’s not uncommon to find employees that take their employer for granted. You might also find leaders who dismiss the significance of their team members.  However, if you choose to utilize the small business mentality, where every person counts, makes a difference and a contribution to the bottom line, everyone wins.

When both employee and employer are seeking to add value to the company, you’ll find more satisfied employees, better customer service, more strategic and independent thinking, and in the end, more profit to everyone involved.

Think about how you can add value to your employer, whether you are an entry-level, mid-level employee, manager, or executive. All positions create value, and the more value we add to the company, the greater chance we have of increasing our worth. Bottom line, that means more promotions, more money earned, and increased job security.

Remember, companies need to profit to survive. They need people on their team who aren’t adopting a “What can I take from my company?” mentality.  Instead find new ways to give and add value for the overall benefit to everyone.

When people work together and utilize the win-win dynamic everyone thrives. Ask yourself what more can I do for my company? When you ask this question it takes the focus off of you and your own personal gains, and instead looks to how you can contribute to the company as a whole.

To add value, think critically and independently, share your ideas, look for ways to cut costs, increase sales, and improve overall customer/client satisfaction.

Hiring the right person isn’t a perfect science, however, there are many factors to consider when looking to fill a position.

Here are a few tips to consider ensuring you get the right person in your next opening.

• Make the job description clear and detailed. The more upfront you are with a candidate about their responsibilities the more you will be able to identify areas of concern with an unqualified candidate.
• Match person to position AND match person to culture.
• Schedule a series of interviews with different individuals and perspectives.
• Check references. Investigate for accuracy in past experience.
• Ask tough questions. But don’t interrogate.
• Do a team interview. Have your team help with the hiring process.
• Assess personality needs of your team/company. Assess candidate’s personality traits.
• Know a person’s long-term goals.
• Inquire about their passions.
• Find out their expectations.
• Share your expectations.
• Ask what hiccups might occur in this position.
• Study their body language. People will say what they want you to hear, their body will speak volumes.

Hiring the right person, while it may take more time on the front end, will save your company money in employee turnover, increase morale and productivity, and will keep your team happy!

And remember, you can always enlist the support of a staffing firm or recruiter to help make the right choice.

If you take a look at a few of the companies who foster creativity in the workplace, you can gain valuable insight into what it takes to make an incredible company, brand, and product.

Some of the companies, who really understand this concept like Pixar and Apple, think outside of the corporate-culture box. Water coolers are strategically placed for conversation and collaboration. Basketball courts are open to the employees all day. Workspaces aren’t drab and dreary, and education and advancement opportunities are encouraged.

Don’t worry, if you can’t redecorate your office or add a gym, you can always implement these strategies to kickoff creativity in the workplace:

1. Give everyone a chance to lead and be heard. When you only allow management to make decisions and come up with strategy you lose a lot of creative thought in the process. Enlist the entire team (that is involved) for feedback, brainstorming, and ideas – that means you must also listen. Team meetings can’t be used as a façade that employee’s are being heard. If they aren’t, they’ll quickly catch on and you’ll do more harm than good.
2. Provide free time for thinking and contemplation. It’s rare that you hear of someone’s most brilliant idea coming while sitting at their computer desk, swamped with weeks worth of work. Free time – whether sitting on a couch and day dreaming, taking a walk in the park, or working in the community garden is where most people get their greatest ideas.
3. Encourage risk-taking. Be sure that you encourage and reward risk-taking in the workplace and outside of it. When people get out of their comfort zones alternative ways of thinking begin.
4. Reward great ideas. When your staff brings a great idea – make sure they get rewarded for it. Even public acknowledgment goes along way in fostering creativity.
5. Hold contests. Create a challenge or a contest to get everyone involved, and make the stakes high enough that people are interested and really do want to WIN!

Take the time to foster creativity in your workplace and you just might a solution you never thought possible.

It’s not unheard of that a company will never even release their job opening out into the public. A lot of companies start with their own teams and resources – starting from hiring within and then from asking their current employees “who do you know” that could fit this new position.

A referral from an inside employee is highly regarded, and sets the stage for a faster interview and hire process based on the employee’s recommendation. But this scenario is just one place where the good jobs hide out. Before you throw your hands up in despair, don’t fret. The key to using this resource of finding new jobs is simple – network.

This means letting everyone you know and who is in your sphere of influence know that you are looking for a new position within a particular industry. Be sure to explain what type of jobs they should be on the lookout for and even include your resume for them to pass along to others. It’s not necessarily who you know, but who knows about you that will make all the difference in your job search.

Another resource for finding those hidden jobs is that of utilizing staffing agencies and recruiters. You see, most jobs that are given to these agencies aren’t publicized and the person who is looking for a new recruit taps into their database and resources on who they know that could possibly fill this position. It makes sense for you as a job seeker to make relationships with targeted staffing and recruiting agencies, let them know about your experience, and what you are looking for in a position and company.

Good jobs do exist; however, you may need to use more traditional means of finding them.

On top of these two reasons, we are sure there are many other ways to find the hidden jobs that do exist in today’s market – be creative, keep your ears and eyes open, and don’t give up!

If you’ve ever found a position through these avenues or even something different we’d love to hear about your successes here.

Company culture is often a mysterious thing, it evolves as employees and managers move through the ranks, as people come and go, and new employees enter the scene. Company culture has the power to make or break company morale.

So how can you raise the bar on your company culture? Here are a few tips at keeping the culture high.

1. Avoid competing against one another. Using competition within the company can create conflict and resentment, instead use team competition and reward the company or group for meeting their goals. For example, instead of using sales people against one another make a team goal for all sales people to increase sales by 20%. Pair them up with the accounting department to decrease past due payments by 7%. Make the competition fun and light hearted and all around to support the overall good of the company.

 2. Encourage philanthropy. You can do this as a company or for individuals. Support and recognize employees who donate their time and money to charitable organizations. Offer additional “community service” days off to encourage employees to take time to give to others. This is extremely beneficial  to company morale., Employees who are happier with their company work harder, and are willing to go the extra mile when they know their company will go the extra mile for them.

3.    Listen to your people. Employees like to feel heard and understood. Unfortunately, many corporations make decisions and let them filter down without considering the people the decisions will affect. Simply asking for what the people think, how things can be done better, and what changes they think will have the biggest impact can significantly improve your company culture. There’s nothing worse than employees who feel that nothing they do or say matters within the company.

4. Celebrate successes. As your company reaches its goals, reduces overhead, goes a year without an injury or whatever it is – celebrate! If there’s a reason to celebrate at the end people may work harder to achieve what you (the company) wants.

5.    Values. Honor the company values and the employee’s values. Values like family, time off, and honoring religious or spiritual beliefs goes a long way. Work and life shouldn’t be separate and instead they should be integrated and balanced. Allow your employees to feel complete in all aspects of their work and life by allowing flexibility based on values.