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Software Company • Company Culture
In 2019, tech companies are at war for talent. As baffling as it may sound to people who don’t work in the IT sector, a “good salary” has become the norm here. If you want to hire senior developers, you need to bear in mind that the salary alone won’t help them decide whether or not to join your ranks. The amount of money you plan to offer senior professionals is something that they can most likely get from your competitors as well.
The key to getting talent to pick you and not your rivals revolves around the culture you build and nurture.
Many IT companies have simply copy-pasted the Silicon Valley model. They are laser-focused on providing different employee benefits and creating a laid back company culture that combines entertainment and flexibility. That is why more and more tech brands (especially startups) now have game rooms, in-house libraries, frequent parties and socializing events, as well as free gym memberships for people who work for them.
Even though these perks certainly sound great (especially when you combine them with a decent salary), they alone are not enough to convince people to join your team. In fact, some of the “perks” you offer might be actual deal-breakers for some people. For instance, if you organize mandatory team-building events and force outside-of-company-hours events - this won’t go well with talent that values their free time and wants to spend it working on their passion projects or just hanging out with their family and friends.
Not all people are solely driven by money and free gym memberships. There is a rising trend of employees searching for meaningful work, even ahead of other benefits. In this article, we at Share IT are going to talk about how providing people with meaningful work has helped us grow over the last couple of years.
Before we start talking about specifics, let us first say what “meaningful work” means for us.
At Share IT, we describe meaningful work as work that people believe has significance. It gives them a sense of purpose and makes them believe that they are truly part of something that matters. It's the sort of work that goes beyond entering lines of code in a product that you won’t ever see perform.
As you probably remember if you have been following our blog, Share IT started as a one-man show. What started as a solopreneurial adventure, slowly and steadily grew into a successful web development business that gathers many talented people under one roof. Sure, it took us some time to get where we are now, but we are proud of the way we handled and nurtured our growth.
Even though we were never a company that offered extravagant benefits to employees, people still saw value in Share IT and wanted to work with Stevan on a number of different projects. A lot of that has to do with how he runs the company and how the work itself supports the professional growth of each employee.
At Share IT, we like to think of ourselves as a team rather than just coworkers. For us, every person is equally important and everyone’s work is appreciated equally.
The question of why we got to a place where we are today has a rather simple answer: the term ‘work-life balance’ actually means something to us. It’s not just a buzzword, but an important element that lies at the very core of our culture.
We strive to be honest, and only promise what we really offer. Our company is built on mutual trust and flexibility. We don’t put our talent in situations where they have to attend exhausting meetings and mandatory team building events.
We don’t have a PlayStation or an Xbox at the office, and we don’t buy craft beer for our workers to get buzzed while they write code.
At Share IT, there are no unnecessary distractions, but there is freedom and flexibility. We have a zero bullshit policy. For us, it’s all about the work and people respect that. Our goal isn’t to bribe or trick people into staying late at the office. In fact, one of the main rules in our company is there is no overtime ever.
As Stevan already said in an interview on this blog: “*Give 120% for 6h at work and go home, do not stay after hours, do not work from home. The truth is, when you are well-rested and feel fulfilled, it will have a huge impact on your work performance. Working more doesn’t necessarily result in getting more done. You have to really be there in order to be productive.*”
If you come to work to slack and chill, then Share IT is not a company for you. What we value here is professionalism and we only hire people who want to come to the office and actually work. We try our best to get devs that actually like writing code more than playing ping-pong.
We trust our team members to be frank with us and we value their free time. As a result, our people feel at ease at the office. They are motivated to work and deliver.
As we already said, Share IT started as a one-man show and our CEO Stevan really poured his heart and soul into making this company what it is today.
Unlike most CEOs, Stevan is not just a person who sits behind closed doors and does what he needs to do to keep this boat afloat. He is highly involved with everything that goes on in Share IT and he actually wears multiple hats.
Stevan’s really there for you and he does everything in his power to help you stay productive throughout the day. This is something that most older colleagues respect, so they’ve basically started doing the same. In general, all people work towards the same goal and this really brings everyone closer. More experienced colleagues are invested in juniors’ development and they truly help them get the job done.
As someone who is just starting in this business, this is a huge plus. It’s somewhat like an informal mentorship program and you get to learn from the best.
Even though Share IT has senior developers, none of them behave like divas. They don’t sit on the top of the ivory tower and they don’t have an attitude problem. They are actually quite available to talk and eager to help.
For a person who is still finding their way in the industry, this is a very precious benefit to have. Having someone who is willing to show you the ropes and help you grow a lot faster can be of great value if you want to progress in your work.
As Stevan already said on this blog: “*For us at Share IT, company success is not measured through income, but by looking at the number of new clients and new employees.*”
Since IT is a very lucrative industry, many companies go way ahead of themselves and focus on earning as much as they can. When they bite more than they can chew, they are likely to outsource their services or overwork their inhouse employees. Needless to say, this reflects negatively on the quality and employee satisfaction.
Here’s how we do it.
We know businesses with superior customer service gradually build a good reputation for themselves. As a natural consequence of the customer-centric approach, these companies tend to retain clients and reach new ones through referrals.
Share IT is in the business of helping brands improve their products. That’s what we stand behind. For us, there is no greater sign of success than when a client reaches out to us just to tell us that the work we did for him is showing results and that he plans to recommend our service to his contacts.
Working for a company that is not just looking to get the job done, but to do it in a way that is actually best for the client and exceeds their expectations - is something that keeps most of our devs engaged at work. In such a climate, the quality of their work and level of expertise truly matters.
Share IT is a company that works with big businesses. Most of our clients are enterprise-level companies that require complex and unique solutions to elevate their business to new heights.
That is why our team is always willing to learn fast and experiment with the latest technology. For our devs, every single one of the projects they work on is different from the other. Every single one of them requires a unique approach and a fair amount of creative thinking.
We love a good challenge, that’s what makes us do something we haven’t done before. That’s where innovation steps into the picture.
At Share IT, we work with cutting-edge technologies to create state-of-the-art software that helps big system eliminate clutter from their day to day operations, speed up procedures, and optimize expenses. Our devs really enjoy this because it gives them a chance to grow and constantly build up their skills. Challenging and innovative projects is what makes them feel motivated at work.
Thank you for taking the time to read this article in its entirety. We hope it helped you see what we are all about and what’s it like to be part of Share IT collective. In case you’re down with our culture and how we do business, be sure to keep a close eye on our Careers page. We would love to get more like minded people to join our company and help us grow and satisfy our clients.
