Is your company a family or a sports team?

Ex-Netflix HR Pati McCord, in her book The Strongest, made a rather interesting point: “A business owes its people nothing but the assurance that the company makes a great product that serves customers well and on time.” That's all. Shall we exchange opinions?

The stated position, let's say, is quite radical. It is all the more curious that it was voiced by a person who has been working in Silicon Valley for many years. Netflix's approach is that the company should be like a sports team, not a family. Based on this, decisions about who to take and who to say goodbye should be made solely on the basis of the results that needed to be achieved for the company to succeed.

In general, it cannot be said that this is contrary to the Western mentality. Many people point out that, for example, it is typical for American management culture to be "soft on the outside, but hard on the inside." You can be complimented and take care of your psyche in every possible way, in everyday working communication, but if the business requires, radical decisions on you will be made with the speed and efficiency of the guillotine, with lightning speed and without unnecessary emotions.

According to Pati McCord, the battles for high levels of employee retention have lost their relevance and are harmful to the employees themselves. All sorts of systems of additional staff motivation lead to the fact that people get stuck in jobs they don’t really want to be in. “Promoting and training people is often not the best choice for team performance.” Career growth is not a corporate priority. “At Netflix, we have advised people to take charge of their careers by taking advantage of the rich opportunities available to them, to learn from star colleagues and leaders, to forge their own path, whether it’s a rise within the company or a great opportunity elsewhere!”

It is all the more interesting that at Parallels everything is exactly the opposite. Throughout our history, we "worry" over who we work with, according to the principle "first WHO, and only then WHAT." This means that it is important for us that a person matches the spirit of the team, his readiness to be part of it, keep his word and fight for the result. It is no coincidence that all employees who come to the company are interviewed by one of the founders of Parallels.

Of course, it is difficult to compare a project of 300 employees distributed around the world with a multi-thousand global corporation, but the basic values ​​make it clear where we differ.

Family or Chelsea

In general, there are quite a lot of curious things in Pati McCord's book. For example, the opposition of family and corporate values. In particular, those who claim that the company is “family” for them are asked how often they had to fire people and how many of them were relatives? The main idea of ​​the author is that you are building a team, not creating a family. You are constantly looking for talent and reviewing the current lineup.

Probably, there is a rational grain in this, but what to do if there are people in your team with whom you are familiar from the student bench? If for all the time of your work they have repeatedly proved their loyalty, significance and professionalism, what can you rely on them? Someone is ready to grow vertically upwards, and some, on the contrary, are productive developing horizontally.

Another question is whether it is worth spending time and resources on creating comfortable working conditions for the staff. All these bonuses, compensations, insurances, class A offices and other benefits... Maybe it's not worth spending effort and money on such "excesses"? In terms of numbers, these are additional "costs". Minus from NUT - plus to EBITDA. The task of a business is to develop a product and markets, development in employees in their area of ​​responsibility. Is not it? In any case, this is what the key postulates of the "Strongest" say.

Who knows, for example, at Parallels, we believe that a comfortable working environment supports the creative process. We believe that a talented programmer is like an artist. And if he does not have a brush and paints, and instead of a bewitching landscape outside the window there is a blank wall, it will take a long time to wait for masterpieces. This does not mean at all that we are striving to create a "branch of heaven on earth", but we still strive to use the best practices. This also applies to the equipment of the premises, and general working conditions in the office, including relaxation areas, a corporate canteen and coffee points.

It is clear that nothing can replace interesting tasks. And here we are able to offer really interesting projects at the junction of operating systems and devices that are popular all over the world. But still, we believe that people need to be treated like human beings, otherwise the soul disappears from the company. And then put out the light!

Source: habr.com