Recruitment & Retention
Perks pique interest, culture preserves talent
Article by VANESSA SALVIA | Photography by ATHENA DELENE
Ping pong tables, gym memberships, catered lunches, kegerators and fully stocked fridges—those perks are nice, but the problem is, they don’t reflect the company’s culture and values or how employees are actually treated.
Celeste Marshall, director of human resources at IDX, a provider of real estate software applications, says her company offers those perks, but they make sure that prospective employees know how they’re expected to actually perform as part of the team before they’re hired. For instance, IDX utilizes detailed job descriptions to weed out the wrong candidates before they even apply.
“Companies will use benefits to say, ‘Look, we’re so great,’ but what employee retention comes down to is approachable leadership, clear vision, people that feel comfortable exploring and, by default, because everybody’s moving in the same direction, they’re pushing each other and helping each other,” she says. “We have all the perks minus a ping pong table, but the culture is not only the ping pong table, and that gets overlooked.”
Celeste Marshall, director of human resources at IDX, a provider of real estate software applications, says her company offers those perks, but they make sure that prospective employees know how they’re expected to actually perform as part of the team before they’re hired. For instance, IDX utilizes detailed job descriptions to weed out the wrong candidates before they even apply.
“Companies will use benefits to say, ‘Look, we’re so great,’ but what employee retention comes down to is approachable leadership, clear vision, people that feel comfortable exploring and, by default, because everybody’s moving in the same direction, they’re pushing each other and helping each other,” she says. “We have all the perks minus a ping pong table, but the culture is not only the ping pong table, and that gets overlooked.”
IDX, Jones & Roth and Summit Bank have all been named among Oregon’s top places to work multiple times by various publications. While each of those companies offers a variety of perks, they also put resources into making sure that prospective employees fit their company culture and that existing employees feel supported
and have a voice.
Accounting firm Jones & Roth has about 110 employees firm-wide, with 15 additional seasonal employees at tax time; 70 employees work in Eugene, 24 in Hillsboro and 12 in Bend. They begin recruiting at the college sophomore level and have built up their hiring process to ensure they’re discovering a candidate’s communication skills, teamwork and work ethic at each step.
“We have spent a lot of time on the recruiting process to identify what we feel are qualities for success and set our recruiting process up to look for those,” says Tricia Duncan, Jones & Roth CPA and director of operations. “All of our questions and events are built around giving us opportunities to see those skills.”
Potential new CPAs are interviewed at on-campus events, followed by email interviews, phone interviews and, finally, in- person interviews. “Each time we dig a little deeper to talk about our culture and how they fit in,” Duncan explains.
Because there are so many employees, they create teams of eight to 10 people that meet for a calendar year. “One purpose is communication,” Duncan says. “A staff accountant that’s been here six months is probably not going to raise their hand in a 100-person meeting, but they will in a small group. That helps team morale and retention by having transparency.”
Summit Bank, with 52 employees in Eugene and 12 in Bend, has spent a lot of time identifying what they stand for as a bank and making sure that new employees are comfortable with a bank that calls itself “bold” and “entrepreneurial.”
Craig A. Wanichek, Summit Bank president and CEO, says people thrive where they believe in their work. “This year we spent a lot of time on our culture, because
I think one reason that people stay at Summit is that we really use our culture as a litmus test for people that we’re hiring,” he explains. “If they match up with the culture, then it’s a good place for them and it works out great for Summit.”
Wanichek says the bank does some things that are not typical of other banks, such as not having formal structures of authority. “We’re authentic, we’re hard-working, we’re very service-oriented and, for a bank, we’re very entrepreneurial and innovative,” he says. “Some people who have been working at banks might not be particularly comfortable with a fast-growing, fast-moving place so that’s why we make sure people know that our culture is not rigid.”
So, while the attention may be on the fun perks and added benefits, it’s the companies who take that a step further by intentionally connecting those benefits to the organization’s culture that drive effective recruitment and retention strategies.
and have a voice.
Accounting firm Jones & Roth has about 110 employees firm-wide, with 15 additional seasonal employees at tax time; 70 employees work in Eugene, 24 in Hillsboro and 12 in Bend. They begin recruiting at the college sophomore level and have built up their hiring process to ensure they’re discovering a candidate’s communication skills, teamwork and work ethic at each step.
“We have spent a lot of time on the recruiting process to identify what we feel are qualities for success and set our recruiting process up to look for those,” says Tricia Duncan, Jones & Roth CPA and director of operations. “All of our questions and events are built around giving us opportunities to see those skills.”
Potential new CPAs are interviewed at on-campus events, followed by email interviews, phone interviews and, finally, in- person interviews. “Each time we dig a little deeper to talk about our culture and how they fit in,” Duncan explains.
Because there are so many employees, they create teams of eight to 10 people that meet for a calendar year. “One purpose is communication,” Duncan says. “A staff accountant that’s been here six months is probably not going to raise their hand in a 100-person meeting, but they will in a small group. That helps team morale and retention by having transparency.”
Summit Bank, with 52 employees in Eugene and 12 in Bend, has spent a lot of time identifying what they stand for as a bank and making sure that new employees are comfortable with a bank that calls itself “bold” and “entrepreneurial.”
Craig A. Wanichek, Summit Bank president and CEO, says people thrive where they believe in their work. “This year we spent a lot of time on our culture, because
I think one reason that people stay at Summit is that we really use our culture as a litmus test for people that we’re hiring,” he explains. “If they match up with the culture, then it’s a good place for them and it works out great for Summit.”
Wanichek says the bank does some things that are not typical of other banks, such as not having formal structures of authority. “We’re authentic, we’re hard-working, we’re very service-oriented and, for a bank, we’re very entrepreneurial and innovative,” he says. “Some people who have been working at banks might not be particularly comfortable with a fast-growing, fast-moving place so that’s why we make sure people know that our culture is not rigid.”
So, while the attention may be on the fun perks and added benefits, it’s the companies who take that a step further by intentionally connecting those benefits to the organization’s culture that drive effective recruitment and retention strategies.
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IDX, Summit Bank, and Jones & Roth have all been named among Oregon's top places to work.
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