It’s Blackberry Season! Have you ever been blackberry picking? If not you need to go. WARNING: wear a thick long sleeve shirt and jeans. The thorns are long and sharp!
There is a strategy to picking blackberries. You have to search out where the best berries are and where the best patches are. The berries like to try and fool you. On the edge of the patch will be the small stems. They look innocent enough and they are an easy pick. But as you look further into the patch you see bigger plants with bigger berries. You need to wade into the patch, enduring some scrapes and scratches along the way.
You find yourself in the middle of a gold mine! Berries, berries and more berries! You pick and pick. Everywhere you turn, more berries. Which ones do you harvest? You will want to go after the ones that look big and juicy. Sometimes looks can be deceiving. The biggest ones can be a prize, but sometimes they can just be big and showy with no substance or flavor. Sometimes the smaller, less impressive ones are sweeter and tastier.
When you think you have picked all of the desirable berries in that area you turn around and start to head out. Surprise! More berries in the same area you thought you just worked! They like to hide under the leaves. You walked right past them the first time and didn’t see them. What’s up with that? Sometimes the good ones are right in front of your face. You can be so focused on finding that perfect berry, looking here, there and everywhere that you fail to see the ones right in front of you.
I went picking last week. I got enough to make 16 jars of jelly and 5 pies! What a sense of accomplishment you feel as you sit and eat a homemade warm blackberry pie! The satisfaction is amazing. You successfully picked the best berries and had a yummy dessert!
As I was picking it occurred to me that searching for and picking blackberries is a lot like searching for and picking employees.
First you have to search out the perfect patch. What companies or other businesses will have the kind of employees you would like to have? You can’t just stand on the edge of the patch, on the sidewalk looking in. You have to wade into the thick of things.
Which employees will you try to harvest? You will tend to go after the ones that look, sound or act impressive. Sometimes those are good ones, and sometimes bigger, bolder, louder is just that and not really better.
Just like berry picking you have to go back and check the patch again. Good employees sometimes hide. Maybe they were in the backroom the day you went in; maybe they were off that day. Maybe you just didn’t see them even though they were right in front of your face.
When you get back to your own business look around and see if you don’t have your own patch right in your backyard. Has the perfect berry, the perfect employee been hiding right under your nose in plain sight? Sometimes we are so busy looking all around us that we don’t see what is in front of us.
Remember where the good employees came from. If you got one good employee from them maybe there are others.
The satisfaction is amazing. You successfully picked the best employees and had a yummy team!
With berries and employees it is essential that you tend to your garden. Others will come looking for your berries and your employees. Don’t let the good ones slip out of your hand!
With picking blackberries you can stand on the edge and say boy those look good, but it looks like too much work to go and get them.
With picking employees you can say the same thing.
If you want to make a great tasting blackberry pie it takes work.
If you want to make a great, strong, efficient and functioning team, well that takes work too. It drives me crazy in this day and age, with this economy, with this unemployment when I hear people say they are short staffed or can’t find good employees. Apparently you aren’t looking under the right leaves!
Where do you look for employees? How often do you look? How hard do you look? Are you willing to take some scratches and scrapes to find the good ones? What do you do with them when you find them? Is it time to take some of the less productive ‘berries’ and replace them with a new fresh crop? Are you willing to put in the necessary work to have a great pie or a great team?
I cannot know what you are thinking unless you tell me in the comment section below!
Done successfully you will be very satisfied and fulfilled!
Happy picking!
Well when companies refuse to even consider hiring you if you are unemployed it’s no wonder they are unable to find good employees.
It is a shameful practice and one that I myself will not reward a company who takes part in this practice. I will not give them my business and we should all do the same.
What drives me crazy is these same people are complaining about their staffs and how this one and that are not producing. With a glut of great unemployed employees out there, why aren’t companies upgrading their staffs? Are we that afraid of change? Great question. The answer is management is not proactive and accepts the status quo. It is easier to complain than it is to do something about it.
When companies accept mediocrity and complacency as their standard then they will never enjoy the fruits of success.
this unemployment syndrome is about driving me to the brink of insanity..yrs ago you could get a job….you know..” hey you wanna meet me tomorrow morning around 8 to start…sure!!..OK..welcome aboard….today your dealing with a blind-boring-oblivious-money hungry society-which is boring as well…to find a job….AND to get a job you have to practically be super man and the bionic man all in one with perfection and pristine squeaky clean credentials…r e e ridiculous
I talk with some HR folks at companies that seem to be tired of seeing so many applications and then say it’s because no one fits. I think they are using a false template for their positions within the companies.
As I look around the world business and see all the retrenchments and lay-offs and then also see all the job offers on LinkedIn and other media I can only come to the conclusion that it is all a shame to placate the still employed that have to do 3 peoples work in that help is coming. With the unions today a company cannot be seen to be laying people off and retrenching and then also employing new staff.
So many companies are being untruthful and they all sit on the fence to see how far they can drive their few employees before they crack or leave of their own and then no doubt nepotism will step in.
“Blackberry employees”. At first, I thought you were going to mention the use of our blackberry phones for work. Clever! Right know, I am doing my BTS hiring process and its true,there are lots of blackberries to pick from. At the same time, your article makes a great point on understanding where good employees came from. I was able to get great canidates just by checking the blackberry patch again. Opps, there goes another work e-mail on my blackberry. Thanks!
Any hiring Mgr. that states they cannot find worthy people to employ during the time of an “Employer Market” is the one not worthy of the position they hold.
The problem is they have such incredibly high (or ridiculous) expectations Often, a job description will consist of skills that are actually several different jobs. It’s as if a nurse would be expected to perform surgery, do administrative work, lab work, and oh, yes, nursing.