Tips In Finding And Keeping The Right People

In the Orange & Bronze office, we found a bright blue bean bag tucked under one desk, two sofa beds in a corner, a big orange stuffed dog on a chair and another room where people could relax on floor mattresses and watch TV. We asked Calen Legaspt O&B’s CEO, to share his secrets to finding and keeping good employees:

• Have specific qualities in mind when recruiting people. In our case, I always try to look if the person loves programming and has the natural desire to learn.

• Get out of their way. Don’t tie your people down with bureaucracy. Just provide them with everything they need for the job then let them do their work without repeatedly following up on them.

• Encourage them to speak their mind. Ours is a company where anyone can voice any opinion

• Allow flexibility. The aspect of creativity is not tied down to the 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. scale. To write software, you don’t even have to be in the office unless there are scheduled meetings that you have to attend. We have minimal rules and people can work from home once in a while.

• Make the office very comfortable. As described above, O&B employees have the license to work lying down if they want to. They can also take a shower there as well as sleep over when finishing projects through the night.

• Provide free food and drinks. O&B has a wide selection of free-flowing beverages-very nice brewed coffee. various kinds of tea. Swiss Miss hot chocolate, juice and iced tea-and when we have them come in on Saturdays for training or meetings, we throw a big lunch, almost a party. This makes people comfortable and taken care of by their company.

• Offer a Career path. We sincerely want people to derive fulfillment from their careers so we align the company’s thrusts with their hopes and dreams. For example, some want to go for further studies while some want to provide for their family. Others would like to make a name for themselves in the industry so I allow them to speak or prepare a paper on the work we’ve done to present at conferences, for instance.

Calen affirms, ”Our employees are happy with the culture inside the company and the people they’re working with. They also have a career path here”. As proof of satisfaction, some O&B employees have actually declined invitations to join other companies that are offering them higher salaries. How’s that for loyalty?”

Posted by Manuel

Manuel Montala was an online entrepreneur who enjoys blogging about entrepreneurship and gathering information for his blog to help budding entrepreneurs. You can also reach him on twitter: http://twitter.com/mmontala

Like this post? Why not share it with your friends on facebook? Click the facebook share button!

Entrepreneur
The latest stories from Entrepreneur.

Seven Ways to Get a 'Cash Mob' to Shop at Your Small Business
6 Feb 2012 at 6:00pm
Buy-local advocates are creating 'cash mobs,' which ask people to patronize local stores at a particular time. Here's how you can get a cash mob to shop your store.
When It Comes to Networking, Don't Try to Wing It
7 Feb 2012 at 5:00pm
Looking to get more out of networking? Here are four tips to help you make your efforts more productive.
Three Reasons Apple's iCloud Isn't Ready for Business
6 Feb 2012 at 12:00pm
While the popular cloud service can be handy for personal use, it lacks some essential functionality that can be critical for entrepreneurs.
Three Ways to Capitalize on Business Optimism
16 Jan 2012 at 1:02pm
Even before the nation added 200,000 new jobs in December, business owners were starting to feel more upbeat about 2012. Here's how to take advantage of that warm, fuzzy feeling.