This sentence is from a cover email regarding a sales position:

I am educated up to an MBA.

I still am not sure what that means.

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Yesterday I posted on this “determine your own vacation time” approach to management.  It is totally foreign to me.  Today I come across another company with the same approach.  This HRE Online article – In Their Own Words – contains comments provided by Gen Y workers on a recent survey.

First the vacation comment (my empahsis):

CarMax

“Time away from work policy instead of vacation and sick days. There is not a set amount of time you can take, you just work it out with your manager. The office’s atmosphere is very bright and open. Management is very accessible and will answer any questions that you have. They encourage management throughout the company in order to give you a better overall understanding of the company.”

This one is rather astounding:

Quicken Loans

“When I was in training, it was mid-winter. On the first very cold day of the year, I had an amazing experience. I pulled into the very large parking lot and saw about eight people driving golf carts around, picking up employees. It was none other than the owner, CEO and president along with other executives of our company out there in the freezing cold picking us up and driving us to the front door. Upon walking in, there were donuts and warm apple cider waiting for us. If that’s not employee appreciation, I don’t know what is.”

We are up here in the frozen tundra of Minnesota so I am rather appreciative of this effort.  Owners, CEOs and Presidents that are willing to actually give of their time and effort for their employees reap greater retention rewards than just monetary rewards.  Yes, I know money goes a long ways, but imagine combining a monetary reward with this effort.  If I were an employee at Quicken Loans, I would be blown away with this effort.

You know, sometimes the best retention efforts are not wrapped in strategy, planning committees and focus groups.  They are simply people serving their employees in an unexpected, thoughtful manner.

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I have a weakness for future predictions of jobs, markets, trends, etc.  This particular one is from the Job Market Weekly email (sorry, no link).

Technology will create new jobs as well. Out-of-work “top gun” pilots may find jobs captaining dirigibles, says Joel Barker, author of Five Regions of the Future. A relic from the 1920s and 1930s, these rigid blimps will revolutionize travel in the developing world, he adds.

Hollywood’s woes may be solved by holography. Since consumers are perfectly happy watching DVDs at home on big flat-screen televisions, box-office receipts have slipped and movie moguls are scrambling. But eventually, Barker says, film companies will start producing three-dimensional holographic movies that require equipment too expensive and complicated to set up at home.

It’s too early to declare the end of oil, but alternative energy will create dozens of new careers in the next two decades. Hydrogen fuel could be cost-competitive with gasoline if refueling stations were mass-produced, according to a study conducted by Ford. The hydrogen at these stations would be produced on-site, so managers would need an entirely different set of skills than those required in today’s gas stations, which are mainly retail operations.

Interesting, no?  Blimps in the developing world, holographic movies and hydrogen-manufacturing gas stations.  The gas station idea is an amazing idea and surely energy-industry jobs will be expanding in the future.

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