A survey asking students at top business schools about their dream companies reveals a strong preference for the tech heavyweights, with Google taking the number one spot. Global consumer brands like Coca Cola, L’Oréal and Procter and Gamble also make the top 25.
The survey responses from the students reflect an interesting phenomena that as recruiters we are faced with on a daily basis: the blurring of lines between the consumer brand, and the employer brand. Larger organizations make a clear distinction between the two, but no matter how well-crafted the latter is, it is the former that always gets the most attention.
A compelling consumer brand is a powerful corporate asset, but it can be counter-productive to recruiting teams. To put it bluntly, just because you love Star Wars, does not mean you’ll love working at Disney. Being an Apple super-fan with all of your personal tech seamlessly synced, does not mean you’ll thrive in Cupertino. The reality is, whether it’s FAANG or Fortune 50, in the majority of job roles you’re going to be pretty far removed from the product.
We spend a surprising amount of our time explaining that, no, as an accountant you will not be attending Paris Fashion Week. While the brand or industry may be interesting to you, the biggest impact on the quality of your working life will be the people immediately around you, rather than your proximity to Mickey Mouse.
What The Research Shows
It is therefore pretty sobering to read McKinsey’s latest report on employee engagement, and its’ impact on organizational value creation. According to their research, more than 50% of employees can be categorized as ‘disengaged’, which is shorthand for low satisfaction and commitment. Gallup’s research paints an even bleaker picture, with nearly 80% of employees worldwide registering dissatisfaction with their place of work. No matter how shiny the merchandise, if between five and eight of every ten people around you don’t want to be there (i.e. the average team size in corporate America) , it probably isn’t a dream environment to find yourself in.
Luckily it’s not all bad news – as Gallup’s research shows there are a subset of employers who are able to create environments where employees actually enjoy being at work. In these “exceptional workplaces”, where 72% of the workforce are highly engaged, organizations are deliberate in how they think about the employer-employee relationship:
“These organizations are being more intentional about addressing vulnerabilities in the new world of hybrid and remote working, such as communication, clear expectations, employees feeling connected to the organization, and the quality of partnerships and friendships. They had a plan to address these employee needs and executed it”
How To Get A Read On Workplace Culture
Late last year Glassdoor released powerful new functionality that allows you to filter employee ratings by demographic. You can now view the overall employee rating, and then you can slice the data further to see how women, people of color, and those that identify as LGBTQ+ rate the company. Perhaps unsurprisingly, almost every employee cohort reports lower scores for those that come from diverse backgrounds. A good place to start is the delta between the aggregate score, and the under-represented scores. The smaller the delta, the more likely the company has a supportive culture. However you personally identify, it says a lot about an organization if subsets of employees have significantly worse experiences than their peers.
When you are interviewing with prospective employers, especially if you’re part of an under-represented group, I encourage you to ask if there are Employee Resource Groups (ERG’s) affiliated to your dimension of diversity. If there aren’t, you already have a partial answer. If there are, but they won’t let you speak to anyone in those groups, then you have a different answer.
As with the Glassdoor scores, you don’t need to identify with a specific dimension of diversity to ask about ERG’s. Indeed an organizations’ view on ally-ship, and whether this is encouraged, is another useful cultural barometer.
What Does This Mean For My Dream?
After two decades of leading the recruiting functions at some of the worlds’ most beloved brands, I can confidently say that there’s no such thing as the perfect job. There are always going to be trade-offs, and finding the right environment for you is of course an intensely personal choice.
We are fortunate to be in the workforce at such a data-rich time, and there is more transparency today than there has ever been. However someone else’s experience doesn’t guarantee you the same outcome. You may well be focused on a particular brand or industry sector that aligns with your personal passions, but that should only form part of your decision making process. Take time to investigate what the environment is like, and to understand how much exposure you’ll have to the thing that’s interesting to you. Most importantly look at the aggregate experiences (rather than individual comments, which can often be polarized) of employees to get an overall sense of the company culture.
Remember that we all play a role in creating the culture at the places we work, but it’s not up to us individually to save or improve the culture. If you find yourself in an environment that doesn’t match your dream, it’s OK to let that dream go and find a new place to thrive.
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