Be From or Be At

There are lots of articles and books on how to retain your employees in your organization these days.

• Give them work schedule flexibility.
• Make sure you have the latest, coolest tools and gadgets.
• Have a good benefits package.
• Make sure your company is seen as making a positive impact on the world.
• Give them the right training and opportunities to advance their career.
• Make it fun – group outings, game areas, whatever it takes.
• Pay a good salary.

But all of those things are not enough.  There are a lot of companies out there people want to go to work for because they think the name will look really good on a resume.  And I agree it must work, because I see certain company names on resumes and immediately give the potential employee a lot of credit.  But the more I looked at resumes, the more I realized I was seeing a lot of people who used to work at those supposedly prestigious companies; and I started thinking, why did all these people used to work at those companies instead of still work at those companies.  Then I started noticing that a different set of companies kept coming up when I got those “congratulate Sue for her 5th or 10th anniversary at the same company” notices from LinkedIn.

So I started thinking.  Which company – or organization within a company – do I want to be part of?  The company that everyone wants to be from or the company everyone wants to be at?

Which do you think is better?