New Job

I start a new job tomorrow. Actually it’s an old job in a way since I’m going back to work for a company and position I left in 2004. I’m sure many faces have changed but the job is essentially the same, only now with a few more people on staff.

This weekend I thought about how hard companies work to attract talent. Yet once they have the talent in house, they let off the accelerator and coast into business as usual territory. This new job will require attracting talented people and then doing everything I can to keep them on board. That will be a big challenge given the nature of the work, the long hours and the competitive job market. One benefit of the job will be that I’ll know daily how I’m doing and can make corrections in a timely fashion when I notice a problem. Because I know that if I don’t take care of my best people someone else will.

What do you do to keep your best employees? Do you tend to treat everyone the same? Does your intern have a flat panel monitor while your developers or designers get by with a clunky CRT?