Quantum Newsprint hosted by Bill Sjoblom

Changes to Quantum Newsprint

Effective today we have changed the way that this blog works.  In the past you needed to subscribe to the blog...and more than half of you did.  But many people had trouble subscribing and others were not aware of the blog.  We have now subscribed every employee at QS. 

I want to continue to use this blog to communicate with eveeryone at Quantum Services.  The blog will continue to share industry news, client news and updates, new clients, employee recognitions, guest blogs and sometimes whatever is one my mind. 

If you already subscribed, you may receive two copies of this blog.  This will be the only time you will get a duplicate.

Thank you for your many comments and suggestions.  Keep them coming!

What's on Your Mind?

As I am sure you have noticed, lately I have invited other staff members to contribute to this blog.  I would like to extend that invitation to all of you.  What's on your mind?  Do you have an interesting article or experience to share?  Did your family go on an interesting vacation or trip lately?  Does your division have a quirky tradition or way of work?  Have you seen something really interesting or innovative that your clients are doing?  Do you have a funny story?

I would love to have some of you guest blog an article or two.  What do you say?  The line forms to the right, no pushing or shoving, please!

What do you want to hear about?

As I think about the new year, I am wondering what you would like to hear about from me?  More about Quantum people?  More about what's happening in the office?  More about sales?  More about our clients?  I want to know!

I would also like to hear from you about what was most helpful or interesting that I wrote about over the past year?  What types of blog posts did you like?

Finally, I'd like some feedback on the value of this blog.  Should I keep writing?  Would you like to hear from me more often or less often?  Should we get some other staff members to contribute?  What do you think?

(note - this is when you reply so that I know someone is reading!)

Mystery Solved and My Apologies

It has always been surprising to me how few comments or responses I get from this blog.  Well, last night I figured out why!  It's not that you have not been giving me feedback - I just was not getting it.  I feel kind of silly (that's a nice way to say I feel like an idiot). 

Many of you were replying to the email that you receive with each new blog post...and that email was going to my gmail account that I set up to create this blog.  Well, I never really used my gmail account for anything else so I never checked it.  Last night I went into that account and found more than 50 email comments and replies!  How cool is that?

So, I must apologize.  It is my intention to respond to your comments and I was not doing that.  To each of you that took the effort to contribute, I am sorry. 

But don't stop now!  Ideally, I would prefer if you actually went to the blog site and posted a comment so that everyone can see it.  But if it is easier for you to just reply to the email of each blog post, be assured that I will get it now. 

Thanks again for your interest in this blog!

Can you hear me now? How about now?

We are in the process of evaluating the Employee Survey results and one area of concern is communication at Quantum.  Here are the results of some of the questions related to communication:

"I generally know what is happening in QS" had an average rating in 2010 of 2.74 (out of a possible 4).  Out of 73 questions only four questions rated lower.  Also troubling is that the average rating has fallen from 2.91 in 2006. 

"Company newsletters are a great source of information for me" scored an average rating in 2010 of 2.97.  Again, this is down from 3.16 in 2008.

"Information is generally timely" also got a low rating of 3.04, the lowest rating since 1996. 

So I need some help here.  I know we recently switched from printed newsletters to attaching the newsletters to the payroll email.  Has this negatively influenced your view of newsletters or communication in general? 

I have been using this blog to communicate for more than a year now...is this helpful?  Do you get useful information from this blog?  Would you like it to continue? 

What else can we do to improve communication at QS?  The feedback you provided through the survey is important to QS and we want to improve our communication.  Any ideas?

Thanks For Your Feedback!

The deadline for submitting your Climate Survey has passed and I want to thank each of you that participated.  We received 129 surveys - thats 65% of our total employees!  Thats really a good response. 

Peak divisions submitted 50 surveys, Crest and Independent divisions each sent in 33 and staff completed 13 surveys. 

I also want to tell you how much we appreciate all of the time and effort you took to give us written comments that helped us to more clearly understand your point of view.  We are in the process of tabulating the results and will be working with the data at our next staff meeting in September.  Soon after that we will be sharing our conclusions and areas of work with you in a newsletter.

We have started sending out the new QS shirts to all who participated and sent in the postcard. 

Thanks again!

Why a blog?

Social media was a hot topic at last month's staff meeting.  Everyone had a lot of questions and many people had opinions.  We wondered...how many Quantum employees use social media such as Facebook, Twitter, My Space, Blogs and even Wikipedia?  Could these tools be useful for people at Quantum to communicate, share practices and get to know one another better? 

The debate was hot and heavy until we realized none of us really had any idea how to use these sites to make Quantum a better company and a better place to work.  Some even suggested that staff was "out of touch" and maybe even "clueless". 

Well, I still don't know how to make sense of all this but I will share this story with you.  I am currently on vacation with all four of my brothers and sisters. I know it sounds crazy but we get along pretty well and I have never been on vacation with so many ready and willing baby sitters before since my son Kai was born, so I am enjoying this vacation on several levels!  Anyway, I can't believe how much time my family spends on Facebook.  They are constantly logging on and updating pictures and "tagging" each others pictures and comments.  Keep in mind I am the youngest kid in my family so they are REALLY old!  We have not sunk to the level of communicating in the same room by texting each other but I have heard that some of the younger crowd may even do that!

So I was thinking...why don't I start a blog and see what happens?  My hope is that it will become a place where we (all interested Quantum folk) can have a conversation about a wide range of topics, some business, some personal.  I don't know if a blog is the best way to do this so maybe some of you can give me input.  What do you use?  Would this be interesting or fun?  What would you like to talk about?  Are you out there?