I think I might have brought this memory up before, but I’ll reminisce again for old time’s sake.
Back in the summer of 2007, I was seventeen years old and looking for a job. It didn’t matter what it was; as long as they didn’t make me cut my shaggy hair, I was game for it. After scouring the local paper and internet ads for a part-time gig, I found it: COUNTRY CLUB HIRING SUMMER HELP. The local bigwig watering hole had some openings!
I was hired in to my hometown’s country club as a grill cook for the pool snack bar. The days were long, the flat iron was hot, and my boombox in the kitchen was loud. I usually threw my long hair up and behind a navy blue bandana, revealing my earrings, and I normally left my collared shirt untucked. As the summer at the pool would continue, I found myself less and less enthralled to go to work when I needed to. I didn’t have much motivation, and I didn’t really like the people who I was serving. I found myself taking occasional golf cart rides on slow days, and experimenting with mixing Slushie flavors together was one of my favorite pastimes. I had no real meaning at that job. Nothing was there to develop me into a worker who wanted to stay when the season was over, and, needless to say, I left after that summer. I always call it my “Caddy Shack” summer.
Three years later, I found myself broke, looking for a job to help pay my bills, and discouraged. While I sat in my local plasma center donating plasma for a small bit of cash, I got a text from a friend who worked for Incept asking why I haven’t called about my application. At that moment, when I had finished my donation and collected my dough, I made a direct trip to the offices of Incept.
When I arrived at Incept and arranged to meet with one of the managers of the HR department, I sat quietly and waited for them. In my head I went over what I wanted to act like and how I wanted to be perceived over and over again until I was summoned. To make a long story short, my on-the-spot interview went well, and I was hired in to Incept a week later as a Conversational Marketing™ Expert (CME).
I’ve been with Incept since May of 2010. Part of the reason I have stayed at Incept is because I feel I have found a sense of legitimacy in what I do. As a Conversational Marketing™ Expert (CME), I have helped save thousands of peoples’ lives in my time on the phones recruiting blood donors. I have developed personal relationships with all of my bosses to a point where I look forward to being able to come to work and joke around a little bit but still keep things productive. No matter what role I have been put into I have always been encouraged to do better and shown what I can do firsthand to improve when I needed to. I haven’t simply been looked at as just another number or someone they are investing in, I’ve also been looked at as a person in my time here.
Part of the reason why Incept continues to grow at rates of 40% per year is simply due to the fact that we instill a sense of meaning into our Conversational Marketing™ Experts (CMEs) right from the start of training. You are not simply flipping burgers. You are not just coming in for another day. You really are making a difference in the world working at Incept. Incept truly educates you about the importance of donating blood, and in an effort to walk the walk that we talk, we host between 4-6 blood drives every single year. Incept truly does an amazing job of instilling the importance of what we do into its employees. Some days that was all it took to get me to work: the simple fact that I knew I was making a difference with my conversations and was part of a company that valued me as a person.
What does your organization do to give meaning to your employees?