Perks and employees

It's 2005, i'm walking down a dirt road by the sea, the path give you goosebumps as it is surrounded by a big group of wind turbines. How exciting!. It is my first interview for a "serious" job.

There is a room full of people, and we go over an English test before the personal interview. The waiting time feels really long, lucky me there are sandwiches!

My turn! I go in.

The scene was: A large room, an empty chair in the center, and six people sitting behind a semicircular table looking at me. I sit down.

Some days after, my little Alcatel One touch rings and ...

I got it! I’m going to work!! Ten minutes of a personal interview and mediocre English have just decided my future. My panic and I did a good job this time.

What do we look for in companies besides a good salary?

“Work environment” and “good colleagues” are the terms most used by Generation Y (Millennials) to describe the “pros” of their work experiences, while “flexible schedule” and “well paid” come close behind for Generation Z, according to Glassdoor.

Terms like “employee discounts” and “free food” are starting to become part of the expectations of the new generations, according to Glassdoor’s survey.

At 23, getting hired by a company with my Computer Science degree and getting paid for it was my only priority. Concepts like Employer Branding, Core Values, Perks, and other anglicisms didn’t exist for me, nor were there places to look up information about companies like Glassdoor.

Probably the image we have of a company, what we’ve heard about similar companies, is what attracts us when we send our cv to one place or another. Who wouldn’t prefer to work at a company with slides, ball pits, video games, a fridge full of beers, or a kicker table? If we have several opportunities opened with different companies, we’ll likely choose the one that in theory has more to offer us, but is it the free food, the beer, or the activities that keep us at that company?

The answer is no.

What makes us change companies?

Spoiler alert! No one I know has left a company for not having beers or slides.

There are many studies in the field of psychology that explain how we function when determining our priorities and our hierarchy of needs, for example, the very famous and pretty old Maslow Pyramid.

When our basic needs are covered, we already have a job and can make it to the end of the month, why do we start thinking to change companies? What motivates us to change? What are we looking for that we didn’t have?

In these years I have worked for different companies. At the first company I worked for (student job), while I was still at university, it wasn’t allowed to drink water in front of clients; at the company where I work now you could go in house slippers and nobody would mind. Quite a difference, right?

These are the most common factors I’ve seen repeated in recent years in my work environment, which have motivated many of us to say Goodbye to the companies we’ve been at:

• Lack of satisfaction: not feeling useful, not having a purpose, the company doesn’t make use of my knowledge. My company uses Pleistocene technologies. I’m stuck.
• Economic expectations: working conditions that don’t change; the employee does not feel they are growing financially as the years go by.
• The environment: different personalities on the team that don’t complement each other, toxic people around you.
• Lack of direction: My boss doesn’t understand me; my boss does nothing to improve the team or my working conditions. My boss doesn’t set expectations; there are no clear objectives. My boss doesn’t make decisions, doesn’t get involved. (Note: although is not only "my boss" job but this can be another article)
• Training: The company has no training systems for the employee’s professional development and growth.
• The “call effect”: movements in the company, colleagues who leave, changes in leadership. Should I leave too?

So then, what keep us?

It seems easy that knowing our priorities and the most common reasons an employee changes companies, we should be able to find a solution for retention in this competitive market, where it is now the employer who is at a disadvantage in the fight to find good talent.

Well, it’s not that simple; the solution is as complicated as the bigger the company. Until now we’ve thought that creating standard systems and investing in better environments was the solution to keep people motivated, when in reality it’s about individual needs.

Each person has their own scale of values; each person looks for different things depending on their pace of life or their goals, so what works for some may not work for others.

Let’s look at the following three cases:

Salva has just had a baby; he is very responsible at work, but his baby gets sick very often. Salva appreciates having flexibility to be able to leave work whenever necessary. Salva’s performance hasn’t dropped; he remains a productive and happy person.

Elisa wants to progress in her career; she feels motivated to build a team. Her manager and the company prepare with Elisa a development plan to take on that responsibility. Elisa is satisfied because she feels supported.

Luis is very original and always has good ideas; he has noticed that there is a lack of transparency between some teams, so he has proposed creating “Friday Talks.” This idea has been very well received with high participation. Luis is satisfied because he can contribute ideas for change. His opinion counts.

Felipe is just starting to work, and having a place to eat with everyone else really helps him integrate. Felipe is happy because he’s a big fan of Tetris, and when he wants to disconnect he goes to the game room to break the company record.

Believe it or not, these four people work at the same company.

The best investment in benefits that a company can make is in the freedom and flexibility of its employees so that each of them can find what best suits their needs.

Invest in the ME (your employee).

And now ask yourself this question: What are your priorities? Look for the company that best fits you.