For those of you that haven’t noticed already, this blog has been titled ‘Management By Attitude’. So I am inclined to write about management. But I thought to myself, “What can I possibly write about that hasn’t already been written? What can I bring to the table that is new or unique, apart from ‘Box Office Manager’?” (refer to the categories list on the right)“New”, “unique”…
And then it struck me! – I researched on the web about a few unique and bizarre management practices that corporations are following today. Some of the practices are actually quite hard to believe, but trust me, they are very real.
So here are my top 11 unique, and in some cases, bizarre management practices undertaken by companies. Why 11 you ask? Because I like to be one step further.
1. Cocktail: “Booze”
and “work” are two terms that can never go hand-in-hand. That is because most
firms punish drinking on the job, for obvious reasons. So there is no way you
must have heard them being used together …until now. Numerous Silicon Valley
and San Francisco firms now offer beer and wine to their employees. Dropbox has
“Whiskey Fridays,” and Hipster, a San Francisco-based startup, has offered its
employees a lifetime supply of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. The reason for adopting
this practice, according to these companies, is to bring a sense of maturity in
their employees without the need for much regulation. I say, cheers to that!
2. Fire extinguisher: Peter Platzer, CEO of the San Francisco-based nano-satellite and data startup Spire, has not terminated a single employee in the three years since Spire was founded. According to him, the "no firing" philosophy taps into employees' personal sense of purpose or intrinsic motivation. However, being recruited at Spire is a different story and a challenge on its own. According to Mr. Platzer “it’s easier to get accepted to Harvard than to receive a job offer from Spire”. ‘nuff said!
4. Salary? Non-negotiable: Ellen Pao, interim CEO of the San Francisco-based entertainment, social networking and news website Reddit, has laid out a policy banning employees from negotiating their salaries. Her aim is to ensure gender equality among men and women. Ms. Pao defended her policy by saying men negotiate harder than women do, and at the same time women are often penalized when they do negotiate.
5. Where’s Waldo: Senador Volstead is a beer company based in Spain. Every company tries to bring forth its products to the customers. But this company simply doesn’t want to do that. Or maybe it does? When you go to their website you might be confused at first because it appears to be an ordinary website selling Teddy bears. Only when you resize your browser, you get to the real website. I’d say finding Waldo was easier.
6. Goodbye, boss!: Over the past year, Zappos has instituted a controversial management structure called ‘Holacracy’, which abolishes traditional corporate hierarchy in favor of self-governance. So, what is Holacracy about, really? According to its constitution, “Holacracy is a new way of running an organization that removes power from a management hierarchy and distributes it across clear roles, which can then be executed autonomously, without a micromanaging boss.”
7. Shoe shine: Marriott has found a novel way to use social media for recruiting by giving away a $100 gift certificate at shoe powerhouse Zappos each day for 10 days. To qualify for the selection, the individual merely had to sign up to become a member of Marriott’s Facebook recruiting page. The uniqueness of the approach ensures that it will receive notice throughout the social media and blogging world. Now this is what I call “putting your best foot forward”.
8. A sticky situation: ORPHEA, a firm specializing in insect repellants, used an extremely unique marketing technique to get their message across. They rented a billboard in Milan and created a giant insect trap using transparent glue that was placed on the billboard in the shape of an aerosol spray. Over time, insects naturally got trapped in the glue and created a huge and very visible insect trap. It obviously attracted millions of people’s attention. Effective, but kinda gross.
9. Outrageous reference checks: Some organizations such as Maryland’s Department of Corrections and the University of North Carolina, have begun to demand that certain applicants provide them with their social media accounts and their personal passwords, so that reference checkers can go beyond the protective firewall to find out more about the candidate’s background and postings. These practices are obviously raising serious concerns about employer branding, privacy, and legal grounds.
10. The games people play…: With so many both young and old hooked on gaming (case in point, myself), it only makes sense to integrate games into the workplace. Games have long been used by the military to train, but the giant retailer Target has begun using games to motivate individuals working in mundane jobs. For example cashiers can be scored on each transaction, and individual employee scores can be competitively compared to other cashiers. The end result is both higher quality work and improved morale. If only I could get a job in such companies…
11. Multi-tasking managers: This Hilton program requires managers to totally immerse themselves in the day-to-day operations of the hotel one-day each quarter. The goal is to improve communications and operations by improving a managers’ understanding of the operational employees and the problems encountered by them. By doing the jobs of customer service people, for example, finance employees might increase their understanding of customer issues.
7. Shoe shine: Marriott has found a novel way to use social media for recruiting by giving away a $100 gift certificate at shoe powerhouse Zappos each day for 10 days. To qualify for the selection, the individual merely had to sign up to become a member of Marriott’s Facebook recruiting page. The uniqueness of the approach ensures that it will receive notice throughout the social media and blogging world. Now this is what I call “putting your best foot forward”.
8. A sticky situation: ORPHEA, a firm specializing in insect repellants, used an extremely unique marketing technique to get their message across. They rented a billboard in Milan and created a giant insect trap using transparent glue that was placed on the billboard in the shape of an aerosol spray. Over time, insects naturally got trapped in the glue and created a huge and very visible insect trap. It obviously attracted millions of people’s attention. Effective, but kinda gross.
9. Outrageous reference checks: Some organizations such as Maryland’s Department of Corrections and the University of North Carolina, have begun to demand that certain applicants provide them with their social media accounts and their personal passwords, so that reference checkers can go beyond the protective firewall to find out more about the candidate’s background and postings. These practices are obviously raising serious concerns about employer branding, privacy, and legal grounds.
10. The games people play…: With so many both young and old hooked on gaming (case in point, myself), it only makes sense to integrate games into the workplace. Games have long been used by the military to train, but the giant retailer Target has begun using games to motivate individuals working in mundane jobs. For example cashiers can be scored on each transaction, and individual employee scores can be competitively compared to other cashiers. The end result is both higher quality work and improved morale. If only I could get a job in such companies…
11. Multi-tasking managers: This Hilton program requires managers to totally immerse themselves in the day-to-day operations of the hotel one-day each quarter. The goal is to improve communications and operations by improving a managers’ understanding of the operational employees and the problems encountered by them. By doing the jobs of customer service people, for example, finance employees might increase their understanding of customer issues.
Know a few more? Let me know…
- Sreekiran
kiranraziel@gmail.com
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