Hiring for Happiness
scribd.com
scribd.com
First of all, something about your math just isn't right:
"All employees who want to sign up to the programwill have a percentage of their debt paid off each fortnight. So instead of getting$70,000/year they might get $23,000/ year and be debt-free in the next 4 years."
Why would I spend a total of $188k to pay off an average of $24k in student loans in 4 years? I mean, I know that interest rates are a bitch and all, but that's a bit much. Plus, I don't know where you guys are located, but $23k/year in San Francisco isn't a whole lot. I understand that these are probably all hypothetical numbers, but you might want to choose numbers that are a little bit less scary.
Another thing:
"If groups of employees live, work and party together our hope is that they will love their entirelifestyle, not just their work."
...I don't think it's necessary to be that intimate with my coworkers. In fact, it could arguably be bad to encourage people to be that close. A workplace needs some level of conflict to discourage groupthink, and it's much easier to disagree with someone you're paid to do a job with than someone who's your best friend and roommate.
Another thing to remember is that there's a difference between personal and work relationships. You can (and should!) have great work relationships with people who you have little in common with, personally.
"Forced fun" is always as bad as it sounds.
Anyone applying to your company after having read that pile of patronizing crap are probably genetically incapable of feeling patronized or belittled.
(Seriously, I don't think I know a single highly qualified person who wouldn't quit the same day if you showed up and told them that this is how the company will be run from now on, and half of them would punch you in the face on the way out.)
I strongly recommend Delivering Happiness by Hsieh to anyone who is interested in this type of approach to employee care. Very inspiring stuff. http://www.amazon.com/Delivering-Happiness-Profits-Passion-P...
Being forced to do something which isn't a major benefit to the company would be close to a deal breaker (e.g. filing TPS reports), regardless of salary, unless you had other options. Whereas doing something unpleasant which is clearly important (coming in on christmas morning to fix a security problem) is painful, but much more acceptable.
Really, what seems to work the best is to offer "sensible defaults" for most things, and then let employees make their own choices if they wish. Stuff like offering a budget to buy your own desktop/laptop/phone, but "a lot of people like the 15" MBP HD, and we have a couple already configured if you'd like that". Having social events on the weekends, after work, etc. where employees are invited, but certainly not mandatory. (for this, informal usually works better, especially if some people are clueful enough to try to build links across departments, like the engineers also inviting people from sales).
-Perceived Control
-Perceived Progress
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hilarious