Dream Companies’ Secrets: How They Retain Employees?

ITExpert team11.12.2019

While some businesses are concentrated on their own goals alone, some of them are heading Fortune’s list of the 100 best companies to work for. Sure, this rating is fair only for 4.3 million US employees questioned, still, globalization becomes more visible now and the workforce is not tied to a specific place and time. Noteworthy, Glassdoor shares slightly different results, the main reason for which might be their focus on tech companies while Fortune collects data on all industries. It’s not a secret that people want to work for Google, Facebook and other tech giants. Probably, almost no developer would stay at his company if they received a job offer from Apple or Cisco.

What is the main secret ingredient of dream companies – worldwide fame, high salaries, enormous career opportunities, innovations? Let’s discover every detail of the success of world tech leaders and distill actionable tips for your business. ‘The best’ did not always rank at the top, they all started from a small company in a garage, you know. ?

All the Tips Can Be Divided into Four Categories:

1. Help people feel the well-being and happiness

Well-being is a proven productivity predictor. Happy people are always highly motivated and ready for conquering new heights. Saying that you care about the staff is not enough – only actions can show them if you do. Supporting employees’ well-being is not a new concept, establishing it within companies is a real trend. Well-being includes a great range of working life aspects, from the quality or safety of the environment surrounding them at work every day to how they feel about things they do, about the entire company’s mission and values.

How to improve well-being and make people happy?

Find out whether your employees are safe, healthy, engaged and satisfied at work. If not, question them what could be changed, removed, or improved. In other words, if there is some burden of worry on their shoulders, provide benefits that will take it off. For tech people that might be educational courses or tuition assistance. For those who are fond of sports – gym membership or massage sessions.
All this should tell people: “We really care about your emotions with us”.

Employees’ feedback about dream companies:

The fantastic company culture of “Happiness.” You feel it every day and you can’t wait to come to work. (Zoom)
So fun and supportive! The company is phenomenal and really helps you towards your goals inside and outside the company! (Lululemon)

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2. Help people see their future perspectives

No matter whether you are a business owner or an employee, you might know that everyone hates uncertainty. Be it foggy career prospects, uncertainty in the goals of the company, incomprehensible tasks, all this reduces motivation and efficiency in work.

Modern people, especially millennials, are interested not in financially stable firms but career building. Regular pay raises are important, however, they have been overcome by a brilliant career from a specialist to a team leader or even a top manager.

How to fulfill this need for growth and career development?

Offer your staff career perspectives. Create a system of bonuses, promotions and pay raise so that everyone knew how many steps are left to the goal – the next career rank. If you hire a professional, you might highlight the checkpoints to be achieved for them to have a team. Let it be a small team of 2-3 persons, anyway.
Development may be both vertical and horizontal. It’s widespread that people switch to other professions and it’s a normal experience for tech companies. Let your designers learn the basics of development, let a marketer do some QA work. Who knows, maybe they will bring creative solutions to old issues?
Challenging tasks are everything for career-oriented people. Let them show their creativity in solving complex issues. Set inspiring goals, show the significance of every such task in terms of the individual professional growth and the overall company’s success.

Employees’ feedback about dream companies:

You are working with a group of the smartest people in the world. The daily work is interesting and challenging. (Microsoft)
It is a place where you can build a long-term career, and work on amazing technologies. The people are great here; engaged, friendly, and professional. Work-life balance is excellent. (Adobe)
A fast-paced, goal-oriented environment that makes personal development and team collaboration incredibly easy to cultivate. (Apple)

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3. Help people have a balanced life

There may be someone working just for the sake of working, still, modern people treat their jobs as the opportunity to earn, grow, achieve self-fulfillment. Work takes a great place in people’s lives, as we all spend more than half of a day at the workplace. Companies have to care about the needs of employees and help them have a balanced life. Especially this is true about people who have families and want to build a career simultaneously.

How to help employees achieve balance?

Provide them with flexible work schedules, the possibility to work from home from time to time, let them feel free from standard 9 AM-6 PM working hours. Finally, most dream companies are result-oriented and they give people freedom in choosing when to work.
We all are humans and almost everyone has personal challenges – relationships, parenthood, elder care, home ownership, or even small personal issues that affect productivity. It’s great when companies understand these needs and offer, for example, childcare programs or psychological assistance in difficult times.

Finally, the balance will result in the highest level of loyalty and productiveness. People grateful for your help will do their best to make the company skyrocket.

Employees’ feedback about dream companies:

Best work and life balance, amazing benefits, amazing people and most importantly a people-first focused company. (Boston Consulting Group)
Great people, great culture, and the company really cares about its employees. Really good work-life balance and flexibility to work remote. (Johnson & Johnson)

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4. Help people be part of something bigger

An altruistic and global goal is what inspires, motivates, touches all the strings of a human soul and makes us highly effective. When a company transmits its values and ultimate goals to every worker, its products come to the next level, as people clearly see what and why they do. They see bigger reasons for their work.

How to implement this tip in practice?

Define what is your global goal. Find out how your product will help the world become a better place, how it will help users simplify their life.
Show your mission, vision and global goal to the staff almost every day. Remind people that they are doing important business. Demonstrate ‘before/after’ schemes to illustrate your future common achievements.
Don’t forget about ‘One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind’. Even if you’re developing a small local product, this doesn’t mean it is meaningless. This is especially relevant for startups working locally.

Employees’ feedback about dream companies:

I love working for a company whose vision aligns with my personal beliefs. We are motivated by our belief that we are changing the world for the better. (LinkedIn)
Bain really lives and breathes its values. I feel both challenged yet supported every single day, and truly feel that I am making an impact. (Bain)
Because you believe you can be the one to make and drive changes that will overall better the goal of our species achieving multi-planetary status. (Space X)

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Are You Ready to Turn Your Business into a Dream Company?

So, now you know what are the top secrets of well-known dream companies. Nearly all of them started their way with a small capital and a couple of team members. Take a look at where they are now. You CAN do the same. Just learn from the best practices and someday, you might be one of the first on Fortune’s list.