A new survey by The IT Job Board has indicated that the majority of IT professionals would not leave a company with a good working culture for a higher salary somewhere else.
The survey was conducted in December 2008 and canvassed the opinions of 222 IT workers. The IT Job Board is an online UK employment resource, advertising nearly 20,000 vacancies. Clients include Cisco Systems, Dell, IBM and Capgemini.
The results of the survey indicate that the culture of a workplace is vitally important to retaining staff. 60% of IT professionals would reject a higher salary to remain at a company with a good working culture.
The vast majority (84%) believed that a good working culture would create a positive environment, while 76% stated that productivity would be increased as a result
Rik Ferguson, solutions architect at security vendor Trend Micro, told CBR that a good working culture is key to the success of a company. He said: “Being told I’ve done a good job is much more important to me than any financial reward for doing my job. Our CEO, who is based in another country, knows me by name and can recognise me, and that makes me feel valued.”
Trend Micro co-founder Jenny Chang is now the company’s Chief Culture Officer and in 2008 she launched the Trend Micro Global Citizen Programs. The initiative is a series of projects for employees that aim to encourage social responsibility.
One such initiative is a home building project in the Philippines. Trend Micro workers commit a week of their time, which is matched by the company, and travel to the Philippines to build houses.
Ferguson says that schemes such as this give the company a family-like feel. He said: “There is no doubt that the culture at the company is key to helping employee retention. Lots of workers have been here over 5 years, many have been here 9 or 10 years. That’s quite unusual in our business.”
A third (32%) of responses to the survey indicated that the culture of an organisation was more important than the salary offered, while 38% also considered it more significant to them than flexible working.
