people management

---

Not long ago, one of my closest friends made a career decision that reflected where he wanted his life outside of work to move towards and thus chose to align his professional work and compensation to match his personal life goals. My friend completed his MBA program a couple years ago; however, more significantly within the past three years he married his wife, had one child, and towards the end of 2024 received the news that he and his wife were expecting twins. 

Due to external personal factors, in this case a young growing family, my friend decided to enter the job market and ended up accepting a new position with a company that was better structured to support him both financially and professionally. Unlike his previous employer, this new organization allowed him to spend more time at home as he works remote four days a week, offered a better healthcare benefits plan, and included a pay increase from what he was previously making. As we’ve touched upon, just as organizations are dynamic and evolving, so are its employees and their motivating factors. Therefore, it’s vital for managers to constantly have ongoing communication with their employees about job development, goals, and personal aspirations so they can effectively position them for success within the organization and beyond.

In my friend’s case, the key factor that stood out to me most was his shift in motivation when he made the choice to look for new employment opportunities. His decision to switch jobs was not just about a pay increase or sparked due to negative experiences with his current company, but rather about finding an employer who would help him achieve long-term stability for himself and his new growing family. This example serves as a reminder that compensation is not only a motivating factor to encourage higher employee performance, but can also serve as a reflection of someone’s current position in life or their level of responsibility beyond the workplace.

---

---

The most beneficial class I’ve taken thus far happens to be the Leadership and Teams in Organizations course here at OSU which focused on leadership development across multiple levels of a business and from all perspectives of stakeholders. The class focused on classical, modern, and evidence-based theories of leadership and resonated with me because of its interactive structure and applicable real-world examples. The materials and learning format were constructed in a way where students did not just read about effective leadership techniques, but rather we were able to actively apply those techniques within our team groups and current employment, then offer feedback on whether or not our attempts in implementing our learned leadership skills were successful and how to improve. Similar to the construct of developing employees, the course was specifically designed to develop students in phases beginning with the current assessment of our leadership skills, development within the course, and correction after real-life implementation (W6 Lecture 4 – Development).

On the contrary, one of the least beneficial training courses I’ve had to participate in was the mandatory workplace compliance training which covered topics such as sexual harassment, supervisor training, and workplace safety. I understand these conducted training courses offered through ADP are mainly offered for workplace compliance and liability reasons, but they are not effective in engaging individuals nor offer a way to measure a level of effectiveness post training (W6 Lecture 2 – Evaluating Training Effectiveness). If I had a recommendation to offer to my employer, I would propose the idea of implementing training seminars for all employees who require it, within a singular week where everyone can attend an in-person training session, rather than just go through the motions of an online training software.

---

Reflecting on my interview and recruitment experience of my current employer which was a startup in the nutrition supplement space, I realized how the informal and fast-paced nature of startups can both help and hinder the outreach, scope, and effectiveness of interviews. When applying on LinkedIn and interviewing multiple rounds via video call and in person, the setting remained very casual and the interview questions were unstructured for the most part. Looking back, I recall experiencing an extremely casual setting for the interviews which definitely made the interviews more comfortable, but also revealed some gaps in how the organization assessed candidates. While the topics sparked strong dialogue amongst ourselves during the interview, the questions lacked a structured direction and didn’t connect specific skill competencies required for the role. 

Referring back to our lecture content in this module, this affected the validity of the interview, because the questions and topics discussed were not able to be correlated to the skill set needed to actually succeed in the position. From a reliability viewpoint, the lack of consistency across the interviewers resulted in a vast variety of questions and topics concerning multiple company elements such as marketing ideas, manufacturing, and the company’s mission. Because there was no structured set of evaluation criteria regarding the specific role, it’s unlikely that each candidate who applied was evaluated equally, which in turn weakens overall reliability. Regarding utility, I would definitely say the informal interview process helped me get a feel for the company’s culture and overall work environment, but lacked in offering insight on any regular actionable items that would fall under my responsibility. 

If I could go back in time to advise the team, I’d recommend developing a set of basic structured behavioral questions that could be used across the majority of job openings which were tailored to core skills and industry/product knowledge. This would not only improve the overall validity of the interview process, but also allow management to cross compare applicants’ answers more easily due to the increased level of consistency within the interview questions. In such a fast growing start-up environment, which is competing in an increasingly evolving industry like nutritional supplements, making predictive and evidence based hiring decisions can give an emerging company a competitive edge.

Due to the competitive landscape across many industries today, companies are searching to increase value associated within an asset not easily found on financial statements, its people. When a business is able to find, hire, and retain talented employees to join their organization, value is created through non-financial elements such as culture, environment, and engagement. Human Resources (HR) teams and managers are key actors within each company that are tasked with finding and developing value within its people. Below are a few companies who fall into the top 30 rated companies in the US across multiple sectors who have found success creating immense value through its employees.

1. The first company I chose to evaluate was Cheesecake Factory (#12), who was also the most highly ranked restaurant on the list. Given the challenging environment of a service driven industry such as a restaurant, Cheesecake Factory has been able to generate value through its employee base through providing people with high levels of flexibility and career development opportunities. Combined this has helped the business receive an approval rating 31% above the industry average from its employees .
2. Carmax (#20) was also very highly reviewed by the employee base which is surprising provided, car sales are typically a competitive and intense industry. However, given Carmax’s business approach eliminates negotiation, employees are better able to serve customer needs and focus on creating value through service and actions. In essence Carmax has transformed the culture typically associated with the industry which is heavily sales focused to suit employees who are strong in service skills. I’m certain this also aids in recruitment as Carmax is likely able to find a broader range of employees who hold skills that would mesh well across multiple other service focused industries. 
3. The last I reviewed was Nvidia (#27) and in contrast from the previous two companies, Nvidia is structured with much less of a hierarchical management and its employees provided reasons such as the CEO, culture, and team as driving factors for their highly rated scores. I think this provides good reason to believe that HR must accommodate differing motivation factors in hiring employees based on the industry the company operates within.

In each of the cases above, HR and managers of each business orchestrate the environment to allow their personnel to thrive by catering to people’s strengths. Based on employee feedback, they feel engaged, valued, and motivated to put forward their best efforts which further enhances the workplace and culture. I too desire to become a manager who also is able to create value within the employees I oversee because it benefits all parties involved including creating an environment where individuals feel seen and a business which can reap the benefits of sustained success.

Welcome to blogs.oregonstate.edu. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!