In my line of work, I deal with a huge turnover in labor during the course of the year. I interview every single employee that I hire. Five minutes after I interview tham, I cannot remember their name unless I write it in my book and refer to it several times.
Once an employee is working on the floor, I review timesheets daily. I remember the names, in order, by department, for both shifts. But when I'm out on the floor and want to speak with them, I cannot, for the love nor money, remeber their name unles I have worked with them for at least a few months.
I can't believe my memory is failing or non-existant. I wonder if it's because i make a mental note NOT to remember since they way not last more than a few weeks?
Anyone else suffer this annoying trait?

 

I've found that by putting something like one of the persons hobbies/interests, what they drive, where they live, etc along with the face helps me to remember names. I'd make it a point to spend a few minutes with the people (maybe 3-6 people per day) and just spend a few minutes chatting. By getting to know a bit about them this may help. I understand time is valuable, but think of this as an investment. Yes, remembering names can be a problem for me to, but this has helped.

BTW, writing things down like you do is also a good one.

 

Chatting with an employee is almost impossible. My plant is full of non-English speaking people. With names like Nihad, Armin, Lourdes, My Hoa, Moises, well... you get the idea.

 

I suck at remembering names. You would have a problem with the names there. How about a nick name for each one? Armin would be Art, Nihad would be Nick.

 

In Texas I'd think the names would be more like: Jose, Jesus, Miguel, Antonio, Juan, etc.

 

You would think, huh?
No one names kids regular names anymore.

 

I understand that situation well and it can make it real tough; where I'm at there is Jose, Vladimier, etc. Even at that, still trying to attach something personal that catches your attention such as wearing glasses, tall/short, heavy/light, tatoo, fancy belt, clothing preferences, etc may help. Try to associate this with the face. Also, do they use timecards and a timeclock? If so, maybe stand casually near the clock (do it in a way that doesn't make them think you're clockwatching), pick a handful of timecards in advance, then try to associate the face with the name. BTW, what Mike suggested is something I've seen before and it works.

I'm getting off track a tad, but isn't it hard to interview a person if they don't speak English? Not trying to be a smart a**, but just curious.

 

I think that here in Kali you will soon have a hard time getting an interview if you only speak English.

 

Humans are much better at recognizing faces, than associated an arbitrary name to them. We are pretty good at it if we get to pick the name. You know, you see someone and you think "Shorty" or "Butch". You'll not forget that name. But it's not easy to recall the name they already have. Most of the time, one's name doesn't match them. When it does, it's much easier to recall the name. You'd want to worry about this at your plant only when you don't recognize the people you hired.

 

jus say what i say "hey guy whats up" the fact that i recognized their existance is enough to make them smile.

 

I worked for a guy for 2 years, and even after that amount of time when he wanted something: "Hey..... Uh.... What the (expletive deleted) is your name again?". And it wasn't just me he did this to, it was everyone. Some people just have trouble with names.

 

Interviews are hard, I do know the basic questions I ask in spanish because we cannot be too choosy in who we hire. We also have a bilingual receptionish int he HR office that helps me sometimes. I also have some supervisors and lead people that help me translate when I have issues.
It's bothersome when I can recite almost everey size and type of material I have in stock, both bank account numbers, social security #'s, etc etc but I can be face to face and forget the name. I rarely forget a meeting, appointment, birthday or anniversary. Names just blow me out of the water.

I tried the "What's up buddy", and "Hey man, ...." but that gets old after awhile.

I also tried to order that memorization thing they used to advertise on TV, you know, the one where kids would go from D students to A student after a few weeks. But I forgot where I put the scrap of papper with the phone number on it.

 

In my job I meet lots of new people and have quite a crew of staff to work with. I have a heck of a time remembering names unless I use it over and over for a period of time. It's kind of embarassing at times, but I just blame it on my Half-Heimers.

 

I used to work at power plants around the country, during maintenance outages, and would be working with 300 to 500 contract labor personnel at a typical job. My first priority would be to learn all the names of the foremen, general foremen, supervisors and managers, both contract and permanent. I met with every foreman every day to discuss his crew assignments, and I made little organizational charts in my notebook (always with me). Whenever I was back in the office I would review the charts and try to picture each person on my list. After about a week and a half I could call almost everybody on the job by name. And, after about two months, I would flush everything, move on down the road, and start all over again.

 

You HAVE to use their name a few times after you meet them, not just once at the introduction. I'm a contractor, so I'm always meeting new people, whether it's customers, other contractors or vendors. After they say their name and you shake hands, question them on what their name is if you didn't hear it correctly, or repeat it yourself if you did. Later, if you don't recall their name, be honest about it and flat-out ask them what it is, along with something else about themselves, as others suggested.

Jason