Does "Fun" Belong?
As my team and I started thinking seriously about EMC's employment brand about a year ago I first put on my old marketing hat.
"Let's start with what the target audience wants ... and then look at what we have in the most genuine manner. Where they match up -- heck, that's a good place to start."
With no budget assigned to this endeavor and a strong desire from our recruiters to have a clear message, we opted to listen to our gut and take the 80/20 route. … Get the messaging 80% right, get it to market and refine as we go."
We started by asking the senior-most folks in HR at EMC, "What do people want in a job?"
This is what came back, in no particular order:
- They want career growth.
- They want to enjoy the people they work with.
- They want to have pride for where they work and feel respected.
- They want to make a difference – the type of work matters.
- They want to generate wealth.
Then our head of executive recruiting saw it and said it was missing one thing, "Fun." We added:
- They want Fun.
Some (well, one) scoffed at this last entry ... "FUN!?” He said, “I don't come to work to have fun. I come to work to work. I have fun at home. I go home to have my fun."
We put fun on the list anyway.
When we matched what EMC genuinely has to offer against that list and started exploring with our global base of employees what they thought was cool and truly compelling about EMC, we frankly look pretty darned good. I’ll share some examples and profile EMC people on this blog to back up what I say.
I’ll also share some of the more scientific findings we discovered in studying this space further.
TALK BACK:
Do you agree with this "gut list" of drivers? What's important to you? Should "fun" be on the list? What do you think the order should be? (Please include what you do for a living or desire to do for a living.)
One of my developer (a.k.a. Engineer) friends, for example, took issue with seeing Career Growth at the top of the list. That is not a driver for him. A better phrase for him would be "rewarding career" or "exciting career."
(Looking at the photo for "work fun" I selected I'm not sure if it looks more "scary" than "fun" ... pretend it looks "fun.")
ShareThis
