when we hire people we typically have to
kind of interview questions first we
have questions about job performance
this allows us to assess somebody skills
capabilities and competencies that
relate to a position and we then have
personality type questions these help us
assess cultural fit but some of these
personality questions have always left
me scratching my head they’re weird
questions like why do you think a tennis
ball is fuzzy I don’t know and I don’t
know what you’re gonna learn about me as
I stumble through that question but what
I would love to see are more questions
about personal and familial relations
and the reason I’d like to see this is
because when we get home every day we
always share the good the bad and the
ugly
with somebody for you that might be a
boyfriend or a girlfriend it might be a
parent a roommate a partner for me it’s
my spouse and I know that I’m not alone
rathia a cultural consulting company
interviewed employees for 95 different
silicon slope based companies and what
they found is out of those people who
are married ninety-two percent said that
their number one confidant in life is
their spouse that means at the end of
the day after I’ve gone to work and had
dinner with the family put the kids to
bed the pillow talk that I have with my
spouse is an unfiltered view of work my
employer my managers and we strategize
together how I’m gonna respond to those
situations because my true boss in life
is my spouse so just think for yourself
out of all the people in life that
influence you who can you be the most
open with who do you believe at face
value most often who can cut through the
BS and the bureaucracy faster than
anyone else picture that person if
you’re thinking of your manager
congratulations you’re 3% of the people
that we surveyed 3% but we have to
conform to what our managers tell us
we’re supposed to do at work but her
real bosses in life
our our mana are not our managers
they’re our spouses so this is a
tremendous opportunity for us to as
employers focus on employee spouses one
way that we can do that is to involve
them in quarterly shareholder meetings
well publicly traded companies are
already doing this they’re giving a
state of the company they’re talking
about the financials where the product
is headed why don’t we simply invite the
employee spouse to join us at that time
and we can talk about the concerns we
know our employees are dealing with you
can learn this by working with your
human resource department doing employee
Net Promoter scores and doing employee
surveys Pluralsight a utah-based company
helped solve part of this puzzle for us
they asked the question in the research
on what’s the number one reason
employees leave an employer number one
response lack of opportunity for career
advancement so imagine the CEO getting
up to that quarterly review and saying
hey investors shareholders employees
spouses we know that our employees are
concerned right now with career
advancement and here are the positions
that we’re currently looking for in
these divisions here’s the education and
skills that we need and the ways that
they can apply internally well now when
an employee goes home day after day
complaining about how they’re not moving
in their career their spouse can start
advocating for the company and say maybe
it’s time we get you those evening
classes or we get you that education you
haven’t received to make yourself more
marketable in these positions well I’ve
been in Human Resources my entire career
and I’ve seen some really interesting
employee relation issues one that I’ve
seen on more occasions than I care to
admit
our employees sleeping on the job one
employee in particular like to bring in
a sleeping bag in a pillow put it on top
of their desk and is they’d have a
conference call they put in an earpiece
lay in the sleeping bag and close their
eyes well as you can imagine they
probably didn’t contribute very much in
those calls
another employee like to take a nap
during lunch but what they would do is
they would find a vacant office turn the
lights off and crawl underneath the desk
well common sense would dictate that we
should probably set an alarm they didn’t
and so the only way you could find him
when their break was
/ was listening for snoring come in
Frank unlit room but my favorite example
of all is that of an elementary school
principal not only did they fall asleep
in their office but they fell asleep
while substituting in the classroom I
can’t think of a lot more terrifying
than roomful of kindergartners with a
sleeping principle inside so these are
an opportunity for us to address them
through regular performance management
hopefully this is happening between the
employees and their managers on a weekly
or on a monthly basis and performance
management generally builds up to an
annual review so let’s say that a
manager takes their employee out and
says hey we really enjoy the work that
you’re giving us but we’re really
struggling with you sleeping on the job
and as a result we’re not going to be
able to give you an increase in pay so
what if we do one very key difference in
this meeting because that employee is
going to go home and tell some variation
of the story hey honey they told me that
they love my work but I’m not getting a
raise so the change that we make is as
we have that conversation and saying we
love the work you’re giving us but we’re
not going to be able to give you an
increase in pay we invite the employees
spouse to be part of the conversation
can you imagine the conversation that
will happen at home between that
employee and spouse it will be so much
more impactful because it’s coming from
the people who we trust most often that
spouse will say bring home the silly
sleeping bag do we need get you energy
drinks do we need change our nighttime
routine what do we need to do so that
you can focus while you’re at work well
I’d like to tell you the story of Nate
and Vanessa Quigley nate is a serial
entrepreneur and was working on a
business called just family just family
was a social media platform that was
designed to compete against Instagram
Facebook and the other big social media
platforms now it’s important to know
that Nate was fundamentally opposed to
print because all these platforms were
digital well his wife Vanessa was a
supportive spouse and a mother to their
seven children one day she went in to
check on the youngest of their children
and found him in his room crying as she
approached to find out what the matter
was she saw that he was holding this
little book that had five or six
pictures in it he’d received from
preschool she said sweetheart what’s the
matter
and he said through tears mom I just
don’t want to grow up it occurred to
Vanessa in that moment that her son who
had had a fantastic childhood didn’t
have the tangible memories to take him
back to those times and she thought to
herself if only we could print my
Instagram account
it has everything tangible that he needs
to remember that that evening Vanessa
went to Nate now Nate had spent a few
hundred thousand dollars of the family
funds on just family relocated them
across the country and spent countless
hours in research and in that instant
she said Nate you need to change Jess
family in to print my Instagram the
result a company called chat books chat
books is exactly exactly what Vanessa
had in mind you can sync your Instagram
account with chat books get these books
printed off they’re shipped to your
house and you can look through the
memories that you had well another
interesting result other than Nate
listening to his confidant in a moment
trumping all the research he’s done is
he said Vanessa were stronger together
and now the Nessa overseas marketing and
product within chat books which is
traditionally something you’d find a CEO
would do well this concept of them being
stronger together has got me thinking
why don’t we see spouses working
together more often and not just an
entrepreneurship so let me give you some
ideas on some places where this would
work because working with your spouse
isn’t for every situation okay it’s not
for every couple it’s not for every
company and it’s not for every position
but the reason we’ve really never
considered job sharing with spouses in
the past is because of traditional job
descriptions now job descriptions are
stupid and the reason they’re stupid is
because we find the most unique person
in the world with all of their beautiful
nuances and quirks and skills and we say
hey we love you we’re glad we found you
but we really only want you to do the
things that fit inside this little tiny
piece of paper and we ignore everything
else they bring to us but if we look at
an employee we see the skills that they
bring and they Trump more than what’s
found in that job description when we
look at their
Baus we see a different skill set
because no two people are made the same
so what if instead of hiring one of them
we hired the package deal and we got a
power couple well let me tell you some
examples where this would really work
for certain companies bank tellers are
traditionally part-time positions that
are filled by college students and you
need full-time coverage so what you do
is you hire two strangers to cover that
shift well what if instead of getting
strangers we hire a power couple and we
say hey here’s the coverage that we need
you know that but you guys determine
when you’re gonna fill osius and they
can work around their school schedule
the personal things that they have going
on and all of a sudden work-life balance
disappears and you’re simply replaced
with life and you get to be in control
of how you get your income and when you
do that and how you’re balancing that
within your own family now this couple
will also be discussing business when
they’re at home they’re gonna be talking
about the challenges facing the bank or
the credit union they’re gonna be
talking about the leadership challenges
and how they could solve those and so
you’re going to be getting more as a
business by empowering them to do that
another example would be finding
like-minded positions software
developers for example why can’t you
have a software developer come in work
from morning until lunchtime at
lunchtime they catch up with their
family and they say hey here’s what
happened in standup here’s where right
on the code base and this is where we’re
at as an organization right now today in
the moment and then their spouse goes in
and finishes writing code that day
because they have the same skills now
they’re both working halftime but
they’re still getting that single income
household that they need you can also
find people with different skills that
benefit an organization so most
companies need accountants but the law
of diminishing returns has taught us
that there’s a lot of fluff that happens
in work and a lot of unnecessary
meetings so while we need someone
full-time to do accounting we might only
need them four days a week but their
spouse who’s an event planner is also
something that the company needs but
maybe only one day we so what if we said
hey we’ll give you the same wage
the accountant that you would normally
receive same full-time benefits but you
work for days and your spouse can work
one well I put cameras around my house
for security purposes and I also just
like to peek in on my family and see
what they’re doing and I get pictures
for my spouse periodically and some of
the time they look like this
and when I get him my initial reaction
is oh I want to run home and I want to
pick up a crying child
I want to dry off some tears and tell my
wife she’s crushing it right and what
she wants is help she’s sending me an
SOS call but if I get this text at 10
a.m. I got a state of the office until
5:00 and I’m sorry I can’t be there but
if job-sharing existed I could look at
my calendar and say you know what I can
do these things from home and I can push
these things until tomorrow and then I
could go save the day spend time with my
kids give my wife the break she’s and
she could go to the office and do her
responsibilities the most important
discussions your employees are having
are taking place outside of your
brick-and-mortar location and they’re
happening with someone who is not on
your payroll if you truly want to
improve employee relations and reduce
your employee turnover
you need to focus on your employees
spouses now hopefully the ideas of
quarterly shareholder meetings
performance management and job sharing
can be a catalyst for you to focus on
your team and your company and how you
can apply principles on focusing on the
spouse in your workplace thank you [Applause]
kind of interview questions first we
have questions about job performance
this allows us to assess somebody skills
capabilities and competencies that
relate to a position and we then have
personality type questions these help us
assess cultural fit but some of these
personality questions have always left
me scratching my head they’re weird
questions like why do you think a tennis
ball is fuzzy I don’t know and I don’t
know what you’re gonna learn about me as
I stumble through that question but what
I would love to see are more questions
about personal and familial relations
and the reason I’d like to see this is
because when we get home every day we
always share the good the bad and the
ugly
with somebody for you that might be a
boyfriend or a girlfriend it might be a
parent a roommate a partner for me it’s
my spouse and I know that I’m not alone
rathia a cultural consulting company
interviewed employees for 95 different
silicon slope based companies and what
they found is out of those people who
are married ninety-two percent said that
their number one confidant in life is
their spouse that means at the end of
the day after I’ve gone to work and had
dinner with the family put the kids to
bed the pillow talk that I have with my
spouse is an unfiltered view of work my
employer my managers and we strategize
together how I’m gonna respond to those
situations because my true boss in life
is my spouse so just think for yourself
out of all the people in life that
influence you who can you be the most
open with who do you believe at face
value most often who can cut through the
BS and the bureaucracy faster than
anyone else picture that person if
you’re thinking of your manager
congratulations you’re 3% of the people
that we surveyed 3% but we have to
conform to what our managers tell us
we’re supposed to do at work but her
real bosses in life
our our mana are not our managers
they’re our spouses so this is a
tremendous opportunity for us to as
employers focus on employee spouses one
way that we can do that is to involve
them in quarterly shareholder meetings
well publicly traded companies are
already doing this they’re giving a
state of the company they’re talking
about the financials where the product
is headed why don’t we simply invite the
employee spouse to join us at that time
and we can talk about the concerns we
know our employees are dealing with you
can learn this by working with your
human resource department doing employee
Net Promoter scores and doing employee
surveys Pluralsight a utah-based company
helped solve part of this puzzle for us
they asked the question in the research
on what’s the number one reason
employees leave an employer number one
response lack of opportunity for career
advancement so imagine the CEO getting
up to that quarterly review and saying
hey investors shareholders employees
spouses we know that our employees are
concerned right now with career
advancement and here are the positions
that we’re currently looking for in
these divisions here’s the education and
skills that we need and the ways that
they can apply internally well now when
an employee goes home day after day
complaining about how they’re not moving
in their career their spouse can start
advocating for the company and say maybe
it’s time we get you those evening
classes or we get you that education you
haven’t received to make yourself more
marketable in these positions well I’ve
been in Human Resources my entire career
and I’ve seen some really interesting
employee relation issues one that I’ve
seen on more occasions than I care to
admit
our employees sleeping on the job one
employee in particular like to bring in
a sleeping bag in a pillow put it on top
of their desk and is they’d have a
conference call they put in an earpiece
lay in the sleeping bag and close their
eyes well as you can imagine they
probably didn’t contribute very much in
those calls
another employee like to take a nap
during lunch but what they would do is
they would find a vacant office turn the
lights off and crawl underneath the desk
well common sense would dictate that we
should probably set an alarm they didn’t
and so the only way you could find him
when their break was
/ was listening for snoring come in
Frank unlit room but my favorite example
of all is that of an elementary school
principal not only did they fall asleep
in their office but they fell asleep
while substituting in the classroom I
can’t think of a lot more terrifying
than roomful of kindergartners with a
sleeping principle inside so these are
an opportunity for us to address them
through regular performance management
hopefully this is happening between the
employees and their managers on a weekly
or on a monthly basis and performance
management generally builds up to an
annual review so let’s say that a
manager takes their employee out and
says hey we really enjoy the work that
you’re giving us but we’re really
struggling with you sleeping on the job
and as a result we’re not going to be
able to give you an increase in pay so
what if we do one very key difference in
this meeting because that employee is
going to go home and tell some variation
of the story hey honey they told me that
they love my work but I’m not getting a
raise so the change that we make is as
we have that conversation and saying we
love the work you’re giving us but we’re
not going to be able to give you an
increase in pay we invite the employees
spouse to be part of the conversation
can you imagine the conversation that
will happen at home between that
employee and spouse it will be so much
more impactful because it’s coming from
the people who we trust most often that
spouse will say bring home the silly
sleeping bag do we need get you energy
drinks do we need change our nighttime
routine what do we need to do so that
you can focus while you’re at work well
I’d like to tell you the story of Nate
and Vanessa Quigley nate is a serial
entrepreneur and was working on a
business called just family just family
was a social media platform that was
designed to compete against Instagram
Facebook and the other big social media
platforms now it’s important to know
that Nate was fundamentally opposed to
print because all these platforms were
digital well his wife Vanessa was a
supportive spouse and a mother to their
seven children one day she went in to
check on the youngest of their children
and found him in his room crying as she
approached to find out what the matter
was she saw that he was holding this
little book that had five or six
pictures in it he’d received from
preschool she said sweetheart what’s the
matter
and he said through tears mom I just
don’t want to grow up it occurred to
Vanessa in that moment that her son who
had had a fantastic childhood didn’t
have the tangible memories to take him
back to those times and she thought to
herself if only we could print my
Instagram account
it has everything tangible that he needs
to remember that that evening Vanessa
went to Nate now Nate had spent a few
hundred thousand dollars of the family
funds on just family relocated them
across the country and spent countless
hours in research and in that instant
she said Nate you need to change Jess
family in to print my Instagram the
result a company called chat books chat
books is exactly exactly what Vanessa
had in mind you can sync your Instagram
account with chat books get these books
printed off they’re shipped to your
house and you can look through the
memories that you had well another
interesting result other than Nate
listening to his confidant in a moment
trumping all the research he’s done is
he said Vanessa were stronger together
and now the Nessa overseas marketing and
product within chat books which is
traditionally something you’d find a CEO
would do well this concept of them being
stronger together has got me thinking
why don’t we see spouses working
together more often and not just an
entrepreneurship so let me give you some
ideas on some places where this would
work because working with your spouse
isn’t for every situation okay it’s not
for every couple it’s not for every
company and it’s not for every position
but the reason we’ve really never
considered job sharing with spouses in
the past is because of traditional job
descriptions now job descriptions are
stupid and the reason they’re stupid is
because we find the most unique person
in the world with all of their beautiful
nuances and quirks and skills and we say
hey we love you we’re glad we found you
but we really only want you to do the
things that fit inside this little tiny
piece of paper and we ignore everything
else they bring to us but if we look at
an employee we see the skills that they
bring and they Trump more than what’s
found in that job description when we
look at their
Baus we see a different skill set
because no two people are made the same
so what if instead of hiring one of them
we hired the package deal and we got a
power couple well let me tell you some
examples where this would really work
for certain companies bank tellers are
traditionally part-time positions that
are filled by college students and you
need full-time coverage so what you do
is you hire two strangers to cover that
shift well what if instead of getting
strangers we hire a power couple and we
say hey here’s the coverage that we need
you know that but you guys determine
when you’re gonna fill osius and they
can work around their school schedule
the personal things that they have going
on and all of a sudden work-life balance
disappears and you’re simply replaced
with life and you get to be in control
of how you get your income and when you
do that and how you’re balancing that
within your own family now this couple
will also be discussing business when
they’re at home they’re gonna be talking
about the challenges facing the bank or
the credit union they’re gonna be
talking about the leadership challenges
and how they could solve those and so
you’re going to be getting more as a
business by empowering them to do that
another example would be finding
like-minded positions software
developers for example why can’t you
have a software developer come in work
from morning until lunchtime at
lunchtime they catch up with their
family and they say hey here’s what
happened in standup here’s where right
on the code base and this is where we’re
at as an organization right now today in
the moment and then their spouse goes in
and finishes writing code that day
because they have the same skills now
they’re both working halftime but
they’re still getting that single income
household that they need you can also
find people with different skills that
benefit an organization so most
companies need accountants but the law
of diminishing returns has taught us
that there’s a lot of fluff that happens
in work and a lot of unnecessary
meetings so while we need someone
full-time to do accounting we might only
need them four days a week but their
spouse who’s an event planner is also
something that the company needs but
maybe only one day we so what if we said
hey we’ll give you the same wage
the accountant that you would normally
receive same full-time benefits but you
work for days and your spouse can work
one well I put cameras around my house
for security purposes and I also just
like to peek in on my family and see
what they’re doing and I get pictures
for my spouse periodically and some of
the time they look like this
and when I get him my initial reaction
is oh I want to run home and I want to
pick up a crying child
I want to dry off some tears and tell my
wife she’s crushing it right and what
she wants is help she’s sending me an
SOS call but if I get this text at 10
a.m. I got a state of the office until
5:00 and I’m sorry I can’t be there but
if job-sharing existed I could look at
my calendar and say you know what I can
do these things from home and I can push
these things until tomorrow and then I
could go save the day spend time with my
kids give my wife the break she’s and
she could go to the office and do her
responsibilities the most important
discussions your employees are having
are taking place outside of your
brick-and-mortar location and they’re
happening with someone who is not on
your payroll if you truly want to
improve employee relations and reduce
your employee turnover
you need to focus on your employees
spouses now hopefully the ideas of
quarterly shareholder meetings
performance management and job sharing
can be a catalyst for you to focus on
your team and your company and how you
can apply principles on focusing on the
spouse in your workplace thank you [Applause]
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