Let’s Play Ball
Last semester in our HR class we spent a lot of time talking about the various ways to maintain morale in the workplace and also learning about the importance of keeping employees engaged and feeling valued. Being able to see good HR in effect really puts it into perspective and brings the words on paper we read about to life in a tangible way.
This past Wednesday we all took the day to go see the Durham Bulls play an afternoon game after getting lunch in one of the American Tobacco Campus restaurants. It was my first Bulls game and though I say I’m not a big baseball fan, I actually really enjoyed myself. Being able to spend the day as a collective outside of the office was great. Staff development and cohesion is definitely an important thing here at the EDC and being able to experience it as an intern will eventually play a role in how I view my future employment decisions. Being able to spend time with your coworkers outside of the office should be something that you look forward to and genuinely enjoy, as seems to be the case here, and having a good employee focus goes a long way in maintaining good talent.
On Tuesday I rode out to an industry in Siler City to meet with the plant manager to pitch the idea of them being one of the stops on the elected officials’ business tour I’m working on pulling together. Unfortunately, the meeting didn’t end up happening as he was out of town and the person we were connected to meet with got tied up on an unexpected conference call…we did confirm another site for the tour so that’s progress! I did also get a pretty cool tour of Siler City as a make-up for the meeting. Back in the day before the Recession hit, it was a pretty good area for doing business with a large Latino population still there but since then it’s had a slow comeback and has a number of good sites just waiting to be re-purposed for the proper industry by a willing investor.
It’s also around that time of the year when each of the employees are completing their employee evaluations and taking the time to sit with the EDC President and go over what they’ve accomplished, what they’re currently doing, as well as what they want to do in the future. I think having this type of a holistic approach to the evaluation process, along with the ability to talk with their supervisor/boss about it, ensures what they are saying is heard and that they are given access to the proper avenues to ensure their continued development as individuals.
