Quiz: Are You a Corporate Magnet?

Many employees are leaving corporate America in disillusionment, leaving smaller companies with the chance to snag the best and brightest hires. Does your small business stand out to star employees looking to make the leap from Wall Street to Main Street? Take this quiz to see how you stack up to corporate employees looking to make a change.

1. When you hire employees to work for positions in your company, you expect them to:
A. Stay within the boundaries outlined their job description.
B. Regularly ask how they can contribute more.
C. Take the initiative to tackle new roles and responsibilities.

2. When employees bring an issue to your attention or make suggestions for areas of improvement, you:
A. Tell them to mind their own business and get back to work.
B. Request that they put their ideas in writing, then file the document away for future reference.
C. Take time listen, ask questions and use their help to draft a plan of action.

3. You are planning to add a new product or service to your business. Before you unveil it to the public, you:
A. Alert the media and launch a mass marketing campaign.
B. Give your employees talking points to make sure they know all the details.
C. Ask your employees for recommendations on how to make the venture even more successful.

4. When it is time to discuss your business strategy for the coming year and revisit the goals you have for your company, you:
A. Lay out your vision in a mandatory meeting.
B. Meet with a few senior-level employees, then distribute memos to brief everyone else on the discussion.
C. Conduct a round-table discussion with all employees. Explain your ideas, then ask for their opinions.

5. When employees go above and beyond the call of duty, you:
A. Thank them for their hard work.
B. Praise them in a staff meeting.
C. Applaud them in front of colleagues and privately offer a token expressing your appreciation.

6. If employees need to take an afternoon off from work to tend to a family or personal matter, you:
A. Make them promise that it won't happen again.
B. Let them make up the hours the next day or during the weekend.
C. Give them the time they need and trust that they will find a way to get their work done and fulfill their responsibilities.

7. When employees celebrate accomplishments or special occasions in their lives, you make an effort to:
A. Recognize them.
B. Gather the staff around the room to congratulate them.
C. Throw them a party.

8. You get to know your employees and their families by:
A. Asking questions about their personal lives every once and a while.
B. Hosting a company picnic each year.
C. Planning social events occasionally that give employees and their spouses and children a chance to mingle.

9. Every time your company snags a big project, you:
A. Put only your most experienced employees on the job.
B. Ask around to see who wants to participate.
C. Give everyone a chance to try something big.

10. Your company is growing. You need to add some new policies and procedures and decide to get input from employees by:
A. Giving them a draft of your new handbook and time to dispute it.
B. Meeting with them individually to hear their views.
C. Forming committees and giving them the authority to draft a section of the handbook, provided it has your approval.

Score Yourself
A=1
B=2
C=3

1-10: Attracting corporate hires will be difficult for you because you run your business too much like a corporation. You don't have to be big to be bureaucratic. To attract the best and the brightest, you need to loosen up and give employees a reason to care about your company and do their best. No one wants to feel like a cog in the machine. Once your employees feel a sense of ownership in your company, they will repay you with their efforts.

10-20: You still have a way to go before corporate employees are going to look twice at your company. Your intentions are good. You care about what employees think, and how they feel––and you want their input. But you aren't ready to relinquish control and trust them as much as you should, which makes you no different from the glass ceiling they face in corporations. The more freedom you give them to do their jobs and balance their work and life, the more grateful they will be.

20-30: Congratulations! You are a corporate magnet. Employees frustrated with the bureaucracy of big business can find most everything they are missing at your company. You give them the challenges they need, the teamwork they crave, and the respect they deserve. What's more, you take time to acknowledge their sacrifices and recognize that they have a life outside of the office. They will love you for it!