NetApp A Great Place To Work
NetApp A Great Place To Work
January 9, 2007: The next time you start looking for jobs, it might be worth sending your CV to NetApp assuming that working for its Australian office is as good as it is in the USA.
The next time you start looking for jobs, it might be worth sending your CV to NetApp assuming that working for its Australian office is as good as it is in the USA.
Ranked 6th in Fortune’s latest “Best companies to work for list”, the data storage vendor is amongst the world’s best employers according to its own workers.
It is the fifth year NetApp has ranked in the top 100 and the ranking is determined largely by employees of the nominated company. Dan Warmenhoven, CEO of Network Appliance says, "Our goal has been to build a company recognised as outstanding by our customers, shareholders, and employees. The '100 Best' ranking is affirmation that our employees view NetApp as exceptional. This award truly reflects what we are striving for as a company-creating an environment that fosters creativity, innovation, teamwork, productivity, and individual leadership."
But the number one company to work for is, of course, Google: The company where, rather than selling ads or writing code (as they mention on the Fortune website) you’re on a quest to "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." Other reasons for its success include a relaxed atmosphere, free food, canine friendly policy, excellent parties, the occasional dignitary dropping in (eg Mikhail Gorbachev or Margaret Thatcher), employee opportunity and the heady mix of fresh coffee and world-domination permeating its corridors.
Other IT notables in the top 100 include Cisco (11th), Adobe (31st) and Microsoft (50th).
The survey is only open to employees from the USA and final rankings are based on two criteria: an evaluation of the policies and culture of each company and the opinions of the company's employees; two-thirds of the total score is based on employee responses to a 57-question survey, which goes to a minimum of 400 randomly selected employees from each company. The survey covers topics such as attitudes toward management, job satisfaction, and camaraderie within the organisation. The remaining one-third of the score is based on an evaluation of each company's demographic makeup, pay and benefits programs, and culture. Companies are scored in five areas: credibility (communication with employees), respect (opportunities and benefits), fairness (compensation and diversity), pride (employee engagement and corporate reputation), and camaraderie (teamwork and enjoyment).
Gwen McDonald, senior vice president, human resources says, "A portion of the FORTUNE survey looks at how a company maintains credibility, respect, pride, and camaraderie, and the fact that NetApp consistently scores well in these areas is an important acknowledgement that we're meeting our objectives and creating a very special place to work."