How to Make a Job Offer More Enticing (and how to keep your current employees happy)

All organizations (from banks to schools to coffee shops to law firms to police departments) want competent, creative, committed colleagues to join - and stay - with their organization.

So, how exactly do you attract and keep the best of the best, the cream of the crop, the creme de la creme?

Maybe try this:
1. Offer relationships. People want to work with people they like - people who are positive, fun, friendly, non-gossipy, successful, forgiving, kind, high-achieving. The more you hire people that fit into this category, the more you will attract the kind of people you want. Be selective - especially of leaders and especially when you're starting a new division/department/business.
2. Offer service opportunities. People want their work (and their life) to mean something, to count for something bigger than themselves. Why not host organization-wide service initiatives? Or give employees a personal day that can be taken specifically to complete an individual service project.
3. Offer professional development and mentoring venues. These can be formal or informal. Pay for part or all of your employees' tuition at a local college or university. Pay for conferences: in-state and out-of-state. Have on-site trainings and workshops (perhaps even a full-fledged conference) throughout the year. Host "Career Advice and a Slice" sessions where you give pie (or pizza) and have speakers that address various career topics.
4. Offer fringe benefits. Go above and beyond just vacation days and a 401K plan. Try other fun benefits that will cause a stir in the community. Offer flex-time work arrangements, modified schedules, and work-from-home options. Give employees a "birthday day." Put together an "all-company-read" wherein everyone reads the same book. Be creative. Be spontaneous. Your hair-brained ideas will probably help you in your hunt for the best.

Why Choosing A College Major Shouldn't Be Stressful

When it comes to picking the right person for the job, yet another study confirms that it's best to pay more attention to "soft skills" (like team-building, communication, overall "likability") rather than technical skills.

These findings always remind me that, except in instances of very specialized fields (i.e. medicine, engineering, architecture, etc.), the college degree that you choose is not particularly important. Majoring in English or Psychology, Philosophy or Communication, Business or Political Science, Religion or Education - all might actually lead you to the same path.

In fact, choosing a major is not at all equivalent to choosing a career because your major might lead you to a long list of careers in completely unrelated fields.

So...choose something that fascinates you - and then work on improving your social network. Join campus organizations. Volunteer with a local shelter. Raise money for a charity fundraiser. Have coffee with your professor. Attend conferences about enhancing your communication skills. Host dinner parties.

In the end, it's who you now and how much they like you.

The Right Kind of People

Jim Collins' NY-Times Bestseller, Good to Great, outlines the principles that allow good companies to make the leap into greatness. One of them is the concept of hiring the right kind of people:

"They hired outstanding people whenever and wherever they found them, often without any specific job in mind." (p. 42)

In essence, they understood that character, personality, and motivation are indispensable qualities. Skills and duties can be taught. Information can be shared. But "the core" of a person cannot be changed.

For example, if they were looking for a business executive, they didn't necessarily hire someone with an MBA and 10 years of experience. Instead, they hired people who were charismatic, hard-working, determined, commited, communicative, and professional.