It's a given that some questions are a "no-no" when interviewing a candidate. Thou shall not ask about religion, race, or the marital status of your prospective candidate. That was all covered in Interview 101 - it's grade-school stuff. But what about questions that are irrelevant, inappropriate, or downright stupid?

New employees are an inevitable and vital part of any organization.  There are articles upon articles on how to make their first few days rock, but sometimes the long-game of onboarding is overlooked.  Thoughtful gifts and notes are great ways to make a stellar first impression on your newbies, but you’ve also got to hunker down and invest time and energy into one of the most important factors that make people stay for the long-haul (and p.s. money can’t buy it).  Friends. 

I’m brand spankin’ new to the ‘ville (that’s what they call Baudville around these parts). As the new Marketing Coordinator, I’ll be talking printer-ese, corralling creatives for our catalogs, and writing headlines and blog posts about Baudville’s #1 passion, employee recognition!

When we first started understanding the value of good onboarding, I began compiling all kinds of research and data on the subject. I now have a massive repository of information filled with statistics and best practices—all to help companies be better at welcoming and acclimating their new team members. I compiled my learnings into an issue of RecogNation  and we have also segmented a part of the Baudville Blog to this meaty topic. Along the way, a funny thing happened: I stumbled on an article written by a faraway connection, who has, in the past, enthusiastically contributed to our blog. She had a different take: how to help employees be better at onboarding themselves.

Change. Transition. These words can mean so many things – many times people perceive them as nasty four-letter words. When is the last time that you made a change in your professional life? How did you handle the ups and downs? What were your fears and joys? After five years of leading the Baudville Outbound Sales team, I took a leap of faith. Looking more toward my future and what I wanted out of my career, I decided to make a change. Here is my story…