Another interesting point that Jim Stroud and Gerry Crispin brought up in their recent podcast was a discussion on what is more important to prospective candidates. Is it company culture or the career opportunity itself?
I'm with Gerry in that it's tough to have company culture without performance. If performance isn't there, you end up riding that great culture right up until the company goes out of business. Culture needs to be in sync with good performance.
As for opportunity, he talks about how many software developers and engineers want to stay on top of the game. They want the company to keep them sharp and honed so they can perform, or they're out the door. I've come across plenty of developers with this belief who will up and leave a company if they feel their company isn't up on new techniques and technology. Falling behind or becoming "obsolete" seems to be their number one fear. And rightly so, I must admit.
Gerry also had a great point about training. Training and the facility to learn will be the only reason for many employees to stay. So for him, the answer to culture vs. opportunity would be having a culture of learning balanced with the pressure of performance. Good answer.
In the end though, most job advertisements are focused towards one or the other to appeal to the candidate. I feel some serious marketing and measurement are needed to decide what really works. Internet advertising provides a great opportunity to really measure that. Try testing your ads with either a career or culture focus and see how the results pan out.
Comments