Music in the workplace usually is a good sign. Of course it depends on what kind of business your running. You can’t have music for example in customer service departments, but especially in IT firms the presence of music has become common place. I was saying that this is a good sign, because it will inevitably bring an extra element to liven up the mood, and help programmers pass the time when there is monotonous work at hand. On the other hand, making sure that everybody has a say in what kind of music you will listen to at work is pretty difficult and it takes considerable effort from the team leader. So, before considering introducing music in the workplace I suggest that you carefully analyze the pros and cons of such a measure. In general, it’s a good thing because it will improve employee morale, but you need to consider the big con, of whether the team members can or cannot decide without any conflict what sort of music to listen too. So I would suggest that you give this idea a trial period of say one week, and see what effects it has on the team. In order for it to work I would recommend following some steps:

1.    Just give it a try because it will bring something exciting in the workplace. The first thing to understand about music in the workplace is that almost all studies that have been made so far suggest that it does improve both employee morale and productivity. So don’t think too much of it and just give it a trial run. At first, I would suggest you give it a shot just trying classical music for example, something that in general is universally licked. If you think it has a positive influence than you can take it a step further, and let the employees choose their own music.

2.    Everybody gets to choose part of the playlist. Once you have made the decision of introducing music in the workplace and letting your employees choose it comes the tricky part. How can you prevent any sort of conflict between the employees about who makes the playlist, and who is responsible for the music? Well the short answer is to have a clear set of rules that must be implemented by the team leader. First of all, everybody must get to contribute with an equal amount of songs to the playlist. Of course, everybody is free to not make any suggestions if they don’t want too.   

3.    Everybody has to be tolerant with each other’s choices. This is much tougher to implement than it sounds. One idea can be that all the suggestions to the playlist have to be made anonymous, so that no one can pick on somebody else for a specific song. At the same time any kind of offensive comments in regards to a certain song shall be met with a reprimand from the team leader.

4.    If anybody is disrupted form their work because of the music, than it shall be stopped. The purpose of introducing music in the workplace is the increase productivity, so if anybody has to suffer because of it, even if the other employees would be thrilled by it, the former will always have the right to veto the decision.

5.    The team leader must be able to solve any kind of dispute that arises from this subject. In order to make music in the workplace something doable, you need to have the right team leader for the job. He or she must have great people skills, and at the same time should be very well respected by the rest of the team members, so that his or her decisions are final.

6.    Any music has a specific rhythm that will influence how we work. The team leader will have to have the final word when it comes to the songs that form the playlist or that will be added later on. In order to make sure that the influence of the music will not be a negative one, the team leader must skim the playlist for anything that might seem like it doesn’t belong.

7.    Music can calm or help expiate certain emotions. In regards to the previous point, I have to emphasize that music will have a strong psychological impact on those who listen to it. So make sure it is adequate for the type of work you do, and the emotions you want present in the workplace.

Music in the workplace is a good idea, as long as all the employees can agree on how to do make it happen, and are willing to be very tolerant when it comes to other people’s choices. I personally believe that it helps the atmosphere of the work environment a lot, so I would recommend it to any team leader confident that they can manage the whole process efficiently.           

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          Because of the economic crisis there has been a real fight for jobs especially in countries which suffered a big blow because of the tough times. Some of the big western corporations have decided that a good way to reduce their costs is to move their production facilities, in these countries where the need for jobs was huge, and the workforce relatively cheap. But after all the bureaucracy was done, and the factory built, a new problem appeared: how do you select form thousands of candidates the best employees. Having taken part in this recruitment process, I can tell you that the task was not easy at all. Still, we have managed to establish a few steps that have proven very useful in separating the people with real skills form the ones with none. Of course, this sort of process on such a big scale can only be done by big companies, but I believe the lessons learned can be very valuable for anyone trying to find the best man or women for the job for their business. Furthermore, I think the steps applied in this selection process can be applied in almost every domain. So without further ado, let’s see what these steps are:

1.    Start of by consulting the CVs. The first step to do when trying to select from thousands is to be very rigorous when consulting the CVs of the applicants. Try to find qualified workers that have some experience in the field, but you might want to include also young people, who have just finished their education, in order to get them trained with the specifics of the job. I believe it is essential to strike a balance between experienced workers and novices, which usually have the advantage of being more up to date with the technologies used, and which can get used to these technologies quicker.

2.    Give theoretical tests. Once you manage to start your selection filtering through the CVs the next step, is to see which of the applicants have the theoretical knowledge required to do this work. Of course when trying to select from thousands this process can take a lot of days, and will require some resources, both human, considering the people who give the test, and material, in which case we are talking about hundreds of computers. It is very important to get the right number of people in for this test; too few and you won’t have enough applicants to fill the spots, and too many will cost you much more in the resource department. This is why this step is closely linked to the first when, where the first part of the selection is done.         

3.    Give practical tests. At this stage of the process you should be homing in to the exact number of applicants you want to fill the job. About 150% of the number required should reach this stage at the most. These tests are much more costly because the equipment in use is expensive and every mistake costly.

4.    Interviews. After passing all these tests where the skills are more important than the human interactions, at this step of the process of trying to select from thousands you should concentrate on making sure you have got the right man or woman for the job.

5.    Physical aptitudes. Once everything is set, and you have worn down the number to roughly what you would want at the end, you need to make sure, that every one of the selected is physically able to do this job. Getting to this stage so late in the game is because the only way to ensure correct results is to organize the screening yourself and all the medical tests can be very costly.

6.    Test the passion for what they do. At the final stage when you are left with just a few choices of whom to hire and who not to, my advice is to organize a second interview for the people you have doubts of. At this interview I would put a lot of emphasis on why they want to work here, and I always look in the answer for a sign that they are passionate about what they would do.

7.    Trust your guts. When it comes to the last decisions, don’t stager too much and just go with your guts. Sometimes this is the quickest and easiest way for everybody.

Trying to select form thousands of job applicants will never be an easy task. You need to have a very good team at hand and enough resources and money to make sure that the whole process goes along without any glitch. As a last piece of advice I would recommend that you don’t get too hung up on the daunting challenge ahead and just go through with it.