Solving a talent crisis 4 (a multi-part article)
by Miki SaxonHere are the results for finance and Marketing.
Finance
Doug
It took Doug a week to come up with a draft work plan. Mainly, it was a case of moving his current work home and continuing to meet Josh as needed. They agreed that Doug would be available for important in-person meetings, but could attend the weekly senior staff meetings remotely; Doug also didn’t want to lose his feel for the company and he felt it was critical to keep a close personal relationship with in-house people, so they’d still feel comfortable talking with him. To accomplish both of these, universal webcams and high-end conference equipment were the first items on the remote-worker shopping list. They agreed to keep Doug’s program flexible, since his duties could change dramatically with the company’s growth.
New hire
Josh reminded Doug that he had an open req for a financial admin/benefits coordinator. They agreed that the person would spend the first six months on-site with a normal schedule; by that time, they and the new hire should have a good feel for the kind of flexible schedule that would work.
Marketing
Tom
Brad and Tom hammered out a plan for Tom to shadow Jeanie, so he’d be able to take over the work when she was called up, and, since the shadowing is more informational than active work, start on stuff that was waiting for the new hires. This will jump-starts some projects from the back burner to active, buy some breathing room on staffing and actually put them ahead of the game. They agreed that Tom would fly in several times a year and participate in all staff meetings. Tom was delighted at Brad’s desire to keep him integrated with the team and suggested that he do the research on various video conferencing approaches to see if one would be cost-effective for the company.
Jeanie
As a vet himself, Brad decided to include Jeanie in the loop, not just because she’d be returning, but also because he knew that doing so would offer normalcy in a world gone mad. When he suggested it, Jeanie broke down. She said that she was terrified of going to Iraq and that the company was more family to her than her relatives were. Brad told her that she should email him privately when she needed to talk-he’d served in Afghanistan and would understand no matter what she wrote.
Kelly
Kelly’s situation was bit more difficult. Although she said she would love to dive in, realistically she can’t. The twins are nearly two years old and exhausting. She has time, and wants the mental challenge and satisfaction that work gives, but the time is in bits and pieces, not large chunks. Brad suggested that Kelly work on the less time-sensitive projects that were needed, but to which nobody seemed to get. That way, she could work at her own speed and times. Kelly seemed hesitant. She said that she wanted to do work vital to the company’s success, not stuff that no one cared about, plus, she wasn’t sure how the pay would work, since hourly would be difficult to track. Brad assured her that the work was vital, and reminded her that he didn’t have the budget for busy work.
Compensation-wise, he suggested that he develop detailed, project descriptions organized by priority and together they would assign a dollar value to each. Kelly would start with the highest priority projects and control her own time and schedule.
However, Brad wanted to keep Kelly integrated with the marketing team and company, so he suggested that she plan on spending at least two days a month at the office, as well as participating in staff meetings (the same as Tom). To achieve this, Brad offered to pay for childcare whenever they needed uninterruptible time from Kelly.
All three asked if Brad would consider distant workers for his other positions and he told them yes, but only for extraordinary talent who were good fits with the culture.
Continued tomorrow…
