30 Days of Team-Building: Week 1 Update
Of my own accord, I independently created these project pieces to test my professional skills and expand my knowledge and experience. I was not hired or paid to complete this work.
For the next month, I’ll be tackling a self-directed, multifaceted operations and marketing project. Here, I’ll document my progress week-by-week and share the hills and valleys I I encounter.
If 2020 taught me anything, it’s that plans are cute ideas of what you hope will happen but to always be prepared to pivot. I’m entering this month-long project with that in mind.
PLANNING + OUTLINING
I started week 1 with the following assignment: create a dynamic portfolio project that will not only build on my professional tech stack (the technical tools I teach myself), but aligns with my career goals.
With the clock ticking to nail down a project idea, I dove headfirst into brainstorming. I finally settled on an idea I felt best reflected my overarching motivation: equip and empower those around me to do more of what makes them come alive.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Over the course of the next month I’ll be crafting a three-fold solution to recruit, retain, and empower quality employees. I’ll be using Temple Coffee Roasters as the focus of the project for demonstration purposes.
This three-fold project is broken down into the following:
RECRUIT: create an employee recruitment campaign using a targeted ad series to reach quality applicants
RETAIN: Develop and visually design a standard operating procedure for the interview process
EMPOWER: Create the skeleton of an empowerment program to ensure that great employees are retained over time
MY EXPECTATIONS
I expect each piece of this project to echo my belief that a company is only as healthy as the team that’s running it. But even more, I expect to end this month with a greater understanding of the tools and strategies a business can utilize to build and keep a solid team. In my experience, this is one of the biggest stressors for organizations. With this project, I plan to develop the skills and expertise to bring doable solutions to address that problem.
I anticipate the workload will stretch me over the course of the next month. My goals are ambitious, but I’m excited at the prospect of tackling something this extensive.
Challenges invigorate me and conquering them is validating.
ONE WEEK DOWN, THREE TO GO
Week 1 was the birds-eye view week.
It consisted of brainstorming, planning, and outlining my thoughts around my project as a whole and working with advisors to tighten up the game plan for the month. I took time to break down the goals of my project into week-by-week chunks and organized the workload in my task management system, Asana.
The overall tone of each of my deliverables in this project will lean into how the power dynamic between the working class and employers has shifted in the wake of The Great Resignation in the US, and how this offers a unique opportunity for companies to shift their recruitment strategy.
I delved headfirst into this phenomenon in a blog post entitled: “Why People Don’t Want to Work Anymore.”
In order to establish the legitimacy of the strategy I’m creating—companies marketing themselves like a product to applicants—I plan to explore these grander ideas via blog posts connecting them to the solutions found in my final project.
Before the end of the first week, I began drafting an ad series for the recruitment portion of my three-fold project utilizing a favorite tool of mine, Piktochart. I wrote copy to accompany and developed a strategy to demonstrate via video heading into week 2.
WHAT’S DOWN THE PIKE
Heading into week 2, I have a lot on my plate. I plan to:
Demonstrate the tech tools I’ve delved into thus far
Take a Google analytics course, document what I learn, and relate it back to my project focus
Write 3 additional blog posts exploring recruitment and employee retainment
Develop and design an SOP for the interview process
Here’s my Week 2 Update!