In BRW’s ‘Best Places to Work in Australia: 100 or more employees’ list for 2015, nine of the top 25 spots were filled by an IT company. Atlassian headed up the list in first place, with Adobe Systems, NetApp Australia, Autodesk Australia, Distribution Central, SAS Institute, InfoTrack, Odecee Pty Ltd and EMC Australia also making the cut. Information technology companies’ saturation of the coveted employers list occurred despite less than 2 per cent of Australia’s workforce being employed in IT-related roles as at February 2016.

Atlassian can boast single-digit staff turnover, and the company’s HR Business Partner Kelly Kirby credits their high employee engagement with Atlassian’s focus on employee job satisfaction and making sure people are doing meaningful work. Here is how she describes attracting and retaining the very best people, and keeping them motivated during their time with company:

We have a wonderful experience team who create events all the time for us as a company, so we have a big annual event; we have Thank God it’s Friday events, just to celebrate and do something fun; and we also have random, irregular ‘sillybrations’. It might be National Beard Day or National Dr Seuss Day . . . you might get a little gift on your table just to say, ‘Hey it’s National Rubber Ducky Day, here’s a rubber duck’. So there’s lots of fun interspersed throughout the company at any given time which contributes to motivation and engagement… Whilst we’re doing the celebratory parties and special events, we also have on a regular basis in each of our offices wellness programs, so we provide Pilates classes, yoga classes, we have boot camp classes; so we’re trying to make sure we have something for everyone.

Atlassian’s office in Sydney also has a billiard room, a fully stocked kitchen with free meals and snacks for all employees, beers on tap after hours and a chocolate-filled skill-tester. Given the demand for IT workers far exceeds the supply of qualified applicants, such perks communicate to employees that their companies value them and wish to retain them.

Why do IT companies like Atlassian focus so heavily on looking after their people? According to some, it is essential for IT companies to recruit, select, develop and retain the very best employees who suit this kind of work, since having great people is the key to creating and maintaining a competitive advantage in the dynamic IT sector. Consider two employees of Google Australia, for instance, which won the prestigious Best Place to Work title in 2011 and won third place in 2012. Leticia Lentini joined Google when the company’s Australian office had only 17 employees. After ten interviews, she moved from roles in recruitment and payroll until she became Google’s ‘events magician’ — tasked with the responsibility of ensuring that Google’s many events, from sales presentations and seminars to product launches, go off without a hitch.6 James McGill, a programmer at Google Australia, says of his job:

What we do every day at work is genuinely difficult, the problems we solve are really interesting and every conversation I have at work is fascinating. That’s what’s so great about coming to work, everyone is so interesting to talk to.

It is clear from this quote that McGill’s social needs are being met (well, being more than met!), and his self-esteem is being generated at a great rate as he reflects on working at such a great company with wonderful, ever-fascinating colleagues. It is also clear that James is deep into self-actualisation — because he’s convinced that he works in the best job in the world.

QUESTIONS

1. Do you agree that the IT companies described in this case study have lessons for every organisation? If so, what are these lessons?

2. In sectors such as government (also known as the public sector), managers have relatively little room to move in providing the kinds of perks discussed in this case study. What else can they do to make their workplaces more attractive and motivating?

3. Can you see any hidden dangers or traps in the happiness that James McGill expresses about his life at Google? List and describe two or three of the potential downsides to James’s view of work.