Understanding the meaning of one's job

Translated from Ralf Junge's blog entry: Den Sinn der eigenen Arbeit im Unternehmen verstehen 

When I walked by the newspaper stand last week, I noticed the current edition of the brandeins magazine right away. The brandeins magazine writes about all happenings regarding the economy worldwide, yet main focus is on Germany. The magazines cover displays a thinking bubble saying "Mondays, I could puke". This editions main subject: Motivation. 

 This triggered my curiousity since I busy myself with this on a daily basis as well on how bind employees to our company for the long run. Motivation, of course, is a key factor also. 

One of the most important motivators and drives in companies is the leading Management. Besides focussing on achieving company goals the leading Management has to actually care about the people who work with them. Potentials and talents have to bee spotted and accordingly pushed as well as clear opportunities for development have to be displayed. Kept in mind, every single employee is part of the whole thing called company. Nonetheless, everybody has to understand his or her personal distribute to their employing company and its advantage(s). As stated in the cover-article "Brennen. Ohne zu verbrennen" (engl: Burning. Without burning up.), Supervisors/Managing Members together with their staff have to discover the meaning and sense of everyone's personal situation. Turning the co-worker into a co-entrepreneur, giving them greater authority over their own responsibility, it says. This motivates and means and underlines appreciation. Hereby the company says through its behavior: you are important to us doing the job (daily) contributing to the company's success. 

Employees, especially young employees just int he beginning of their career, are longing for seeing and having a sense in their daily work. This motivates. Companie,  having no sense and (higher) meaning in their daily tasks, will have problems finding great talents to staff. Brandeins here named Banks and Insurances as examples for those being confronted with this kind of situation in nearest future. Special opportunities, however, have the new and innovative small to medium classed companies since they are more lucrative to and for young career starters. 

Overall the brandeins article doesn't show any new spectacular perception, nevertheless it shows again what is important to thesedays career beginners - no steeply rising careers nor status symbols, but sense-making work in order to contribute meaningfully and know one's adding to a companies success.

RJ

Sloppy Baden-Württemberg Campaign. Isn't it?

Translated from Jannis Tsalikis's blog entry: Baden-Württemberg versaloppert sich mit "La deutsche Vita"! Oder?

The German Federal State of Baden-Württemberg became famous in Germany with the great Scholz & Friends Campaign "Wir können alles. Außer Hochdeutsch." (We can [do] everything. But High German). Meanwhile the German Agency "Hirschen" are taing care of this Client and its Campaign (W&V). I know, it is old hat. Yet, this week the Ad "La deutsche Vita." (an homage to la dolce vita, turned into la German vita) crossed my view in the Magazine "brandeins", and I asked myself: Has Baden-Württemberg became sloppy with this Employer Branding Camapign?! I know, I must lean over this Window too much. Especially since the site www.bw-jetzt.de  is highly spoken of. However, let us debate a little.

In the Ad it says i.e. "Besonders gerne kombinieren wir besonders Gutes miteinander: etwa spannende Jobs mit entspanntem Dolce Vita. Das Ergebnis? La deutsche Vita!" ("We love to combine the very good Things: for instance exciting Jobs with a relaxed Dolce Vita. The result? La deutsche Vita") Ah! Alrighty, thanks! The Advertisement and Website is packed with such creative Sentences which are Fun. But is it convincing?
There are no Hints or Links to a (or the) Company which possibly could hold such Promise. (Editors Note: Besides that, do Employees even get the Chance to encounter la dolce Vita much as desired? Check this older blog entry.) Same dissonant Scene you can currently find on its Facebook Profile. Little to less authentic Posts. So it won't make you wonder about the less participated "Liking" on the 31 May Post about the "La deutsch Vita"-Motive with the Sentence "Das Leben ist euch nicht dolce genug? Kommt nach Baden-Württemberg!" ("Life is not dolce enough? Come to Baden-Württemberg!") receiving a total of 12 Likes when having 7,000 Fans on FB - odd and bad, let's pretend the current floodings are responsible for the low Participation on BW's Facebook *EN.

W"hat do you think about this? Does this Campaign even make Sense?


JT

Us Dissidents - A Generation Thinking Different

Translated from Ralf Junge's blog entry: Wir Andersdenker

Do-Gooder. Dream Dancer. Waverer. Work-Refuser. These are merely a few names current career beginners are titled with often - describing the legendary "Generation Y", those belonging to the population group born between the years of 1980 to 1995.
I was born in 1984, which makes me a member of this particular generation. Since you, as dedicated readers and Human Resourcer, care so much about this generation, I would like to share my thoughts and opinion with you, trying to give you some insights on this matter. With this, a new category of our Blog is born: Us Dissidents. (Not the church group but the new Work Generation)

Talk WITH us!

What do us "Generation Y"-members do to those Human Resourcer deciding about new company entries? Well, we pretty much drive them insane. We make all theories and old practices go overboard and turn them into nonesense from yesterday. We change the labor market and throw our own rules into the game. This is what you might read, hear and see almost daily. But is the (core) problem really us?!

What do we do different? We question and give us a try. We don't want strict, boring office days. We want to take and have an active part in decision-makings in regard to working and still being able to have a (private) life. And that is the fly in the ointment. It is (too) different from the expectations of the "elder", such as my parents for instance. They worked decisively to earn money. As to me, however, passion and self-realization play a big role. And there we have two differing views. This actually means, having such "elder"-view in Human Resources all concepts in Recruiting and Personnel-Marketing are a mess now - previous common Incentives aren't working as they did back in the days. 

Instead of occupying oneself with the new target group, or even talking to us, and adapting and adjusting old concepts, Human Resourcer (of the older generation) are expound the problems of by them titles "Generation Y". We all tend to pigeonhole a lot and find problems in things once it has been granted a "title" somehow - classic pegging, if you ask me. 

But does it really need a title?! Do NOT consider this problem as problem, rather as challenge - why won't you? Allowing yourself to focus and finding a proper path, a right communication and adapting other processes with and to the so-called Generation Y can to be found! One thing is for sure: Talk with us and deal with us! Try and especially start to understand us! The longer you wait, the worse the situation of missunderstanding gets (- you can ask your parents ;) )

RJ