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Never thought of…

Written by Jochen

Never thought of…

Recently I came into a fantastic SME. A strong growing company under the leadership of a CEO with vision. When entering the car park, I was immediately pleasantly surprised when I saw a parking spot with a digital sign with a welcome by name. Wow!

I got out and looked around. I saw a brand new complex. 
The building was ultramodern. Underneath and next to the building was a lake and a lawn with several picnic tables. I imagined how nice it must be to have lunch here in the summer with colleagues. There were trees where you could relax during the tropical days and yes, there were even hammocks installed for the famous power-naps. Pleasant to be here, isn't it?
I entered the building and was greeted with a smile by a friendly receptionist.


She informed the CEO and offered me a nice Nespresso (and took one herself). While waiting I had a chat with her and she told me how happy she felt in her job and especially in the company. "Because, sir, besides the delicious coffee, there's also free fruit and we can have lunch at a reduced price of 5 euros. I can't cook for that price myself."
And she enthusiastically added: "with the colleagues we go for a run 3 times a week, actually I don't have any colleagues, they're more like friends. We also get a fitness subscription because our CEO believes in a healthy mind in a healthy body".

 

Meanwhile, the CEO approached me. A very friendly person in his 40s who proudly took me on an 'office tour'. We walked through the offices, towards the production area, and it was so striking that everyone greeted him enthusiastically. They waved at him and he went for a short chat with them. I asked someone what it felt like to work at the company and he literally said: "in short, fantastic, I've been working here for 6 years and I never want to leave. I get responsibility and trust and come to work every morning full of enthusiasm."

 

The CEO told me that the economy is booming, that orders are flowing in but that he is unable to keep up with production. "I've just invested in machines, but they are not running, because I can't find personnel. That's really the bottleneck of the company, it's slowing down our growth."
I asked him about the reason why and he told me that people just can't get to them. He showed me numerous vacancies on his website. 
I took a close look at them and I noticed the following when I looked at the offer: "a competitive salary with opportunities to grow". And that's it.

 

I asked him why he didn't mention the many strengths in his company. Why not mention the beautiful offices, the personal welcome, the ultra-modern accommodation, the fantastic garden with picnic tables for tropical summers, the hammocks for power naps, the free Nespresso coffee, the free fruit, the free fitness subscription, the inexpensive lunches and the amicable atmosphere? Sounds better, doesn't it?


He looked at me for a moment and said in amazement "never thought of it".