Is it the quality coffee and great cafeteria? The awesome chill zone? Take as much leave as you like policy? Green Fields development? What makes your company a great employer?
What do you consider to be a great place to work? What does a company need to have for you to consider it awesome? Are you Google-esque in your thinking and base greatness in time-out pods and a good foozeball tables? Or are you simply schweet with just a good cup of coffee, a quiet corner, and an excellent WiFi connection?
Greatness is relative of course, and your idea of a cool place to work might not necessarily be the same as Joe Bloggs sitting next to you. Fortune does a Top 100 Best Companies to work for list every year, and its pretty awesome to see what they are considering ‘greatness’ to be in terms of companies’ value-propositions to their employees.
In top spot for 2017 comes Google (you could have guessed that, right?). Besides offering free haircuts, laundry services and food (apparently a lot of employees take time out for that stuff) they are dedicated to supporting a culture of ‘safety and inclusion’ in their space.
Second is American grocery chain Wegmans Food Market. They instil a family-first ethos in the company and offer small things like free birthday cake and hot chocolate to employees who work outside in winter. Now this might not sound like much to you, as you sit in your warmed office, typing away on your iMac with your soft hands, but for the dude packing groceries in a warehouse in minus temperatures, its pretty darn important.
The poor, tired, rich management consultants at Boston Consulting Group get perks like sabbaticals and free fitness centres to help take the edge off their jobs, making the company the third best company to work for this year.
From the top three in the list, it’s obvious that it’s the little things companies offer that count a whole lot more than the big salaries, fancy car allowances or huge profit shares – don’t scoff too loudly, see.
What would make a company great for you – technology, vibe, flexibility, or free cake? Drop e-Merge a CV, we might have just the workplace for you!
