Kinsa Group Blog

‘Tis the season to give gifts once again.  And if you’re like most people, this year you’ll be sticking to a budget.  But don’t let spending limits cramp your gift-giving style.  You can still buy some pretty great presents for under $20, if you put your thinking cap on. 

So if you can’t bear to purchase another boring necktie or nasty fruitcake, never fear.  Break out of the gift box with these creative ideas that won’t break the bank.

For the wine lover

• Bottle of wine and pair of decorative or seasonal wineglasses
• Guidebook for pairing wine with food
• Set of decorative wineglass charms

For the outdoorsman

• Camping chair
• Heavy duty flashlight and batteries
• Insulated soft-side lunch cooler

For the gardener

• Planter for window or porch rail
• High-end gardening gloves
• Canvas gardening tool organizer

For the cook

• Assortment of gourmet spices
• Specialty cookbook
• Salt and pepper mills

For the new home owner

• Serving dish that complements kitchen décor
• Coffee table book related to something he enjoys
• Coordinating set of picture frames

For the book lover

• Decorative book mark, personal reading light and batteries
• Bestseller about a topic near and dear to the recipient’s heart
• Cozy microfleece throw blanket

For the chauffeur (translation: any mom with kids)

• Car organizer
• Car wash and vacuum coupon
• Safety hammer to break auto glass and cut seatbelt

For the cheese lover

• Cheese grater and a block of favorite cheese (be sure to include a “cheesy” sentiment like: “To a GRATE friend!”)
• High-end cheese slicer
• A block of favorite cheese, box of gourmet crackers, bunch of grapes and cheese knife in an inexpensive basket

For the homebody

• Extra large and fluffy bath towel
• Indoor/outdoor electric thermometer
• Current issues of 3 favorite magazines tied with a decorative bow

For the technology lover

• LED Binary clock
• Cordless optical notebook mouse (choose a fun color)
• Digital scrapbook software

Happy holiday shopping from Kinsa Group, specializing in recruiting and assessment for the food & beverage industry for over 25 years.

An effective mentoring program provides a wide range of business benefits:

• Facilitated onboarding.  Mentoring speeds up the process of bringing on new hires as well as redeploying existing employees into new lines of work.
• Increased employee satisfaction and retention.  Research has shown that employees who participate in mentoring programs have higher job satisfaction and reduced turnover.
• Improved employee productivity.  When employees are mentored, they can get answers to common problems quickly – without wasting time on rediscovering or re-inventing solutions.
• Effective career growth / succession planning.  Mentoring programs help employees reach their full career potential, grooming them to fill key roles as part of an organization’s succession plan.
• Knowledge management and retention.  Mentoring promotes effective knowledge sharing, to reduce the risk of losing critical skills and knowledge when employees leave.

Obviously, mentors can play an important role in ensuring your company’s continued success.  But while identifying a budding protégé may be straightforward, identifying a potential mentor can be more complex.  Whether that person is you, one of your managers, or an outside expert, a mentor should possess the following professional and personal attributes:

1. Senior-level business experience.  To provide guidance, the expert should have several years experience working in senior corporate positions.  At a minimum, the expert should be a professional peer to the protégé.
2. Interpersonal and political “know-how.”  The expert ought to be proficient in handling all sorts of complex interpersonal dynamics within the context of office politics.  To be an effective trainer, the expert must be able to help the protégé navigate the tricky political waters of his organization.
3. Integrity and confidentiality.  Professional development involves discussing high-level, strategic, off-the-record information, as well as sensitive personal issues.  Honesty and discretion are essential when broaching these confidential topics.
4. Organizational and personal insight.  The expert must have an in-depth understanding of the company’s objectives, needs and hierarchy.  Equally, he must also appreciate the protégé’s strengths, weaknesses and goals.  To achieve professional development goals, the trainer must align both the company’s and the protégé’s interests.
5. Flexibility and ingenuity.  When egos, ambitions and agendas collide, sparks fly.  What works for an organization one day may be thrown out the window the next.  An expert trainer must be able to shift gears, develop solutions on the fly, throw out tactics that prove ineffective and come up with new ones – fast.  He must be comfortable dealing with uncertainty to navigate a corporate environment rife with change.

Need a promising protégé?  Looking for your next mentor? Contact us today.  As a national food and beverage industry recruiter, Kinsa can provide the talented individuals – from R&D directors to food service sales managers to process engineers - your organization needs.