Methodology - How we got there...
After weeks of sifting through nominations, speaking with HR directors across the country, surveying staff and management ZDNet Australia has finally uncovered Australia's best IT workplace.
When we initially called for nominations--companies of all shapes, sizes and persuasions were suggested. When we asked people why they decided to nominate their company the explanations ranged from extensive lists of perks--like free ice cream and high tech equipment--through to professionalism and development opportunities.
Those companies with the most votes made it on to our shortlist--which turned out to be a motley crew of companies from a range of sectors. The shortlist included: software developers Yambay and eClinic, search engine Yahoo, services giant Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, professional services provider and integrator Datacom, software monolith Microsoft, broadcasting service Austar, soon to be merged vendor HP, integrator Dimension Data and retail giant Coles Myer. The telcos came in not far behind with honourable mentions going to Telstra spin-off Advantra, and Optus' now defunct online content service Excite@Home.
The next step in the process was to survey staff from the short-listed companies to find out what they really felt about the company they worked for. Surveys were sent to a series of IT employees from each company, covering areas like career and development, atmosphere, communication and technical environment.
This is where we began to hit a bit of a snag. Popular nominees Coles Myer and Dimension Data felt the squeeze of a slowing economy and announced staff cuts, while Excite@Home went belly-up a week later. Caught between a human resources dilemma and a deadline ZDNet Australia soldiered on, collecting the surveys from the remaining shortlist.
Rather than just focusing on general work environment, the surveys also attempted to discover how important different elements of the workplace were to staff.
Not surprisingly "appropriate remuneration" was far and away the most important element within job satisfaction, followed by "a challenging working environment", "flexible work conditions", "team spirit", "access to training", "open communication", "a relaxed working environment", "assistance with career direction and performance reviews", "a flat hierarchy" and "technical superiority". Interestingly, "mentoring programs" came in at the bottom of the list, with most of those surveyed placing little importance on peer-based training programs.
When it came to comparing these results with the results of the HR directors' survey, the only real anomaly occurred with respect to the perceived importance of remuneration. While it scored highly on the employee survey, a snap shot of the HR directors' responses showed an overwhelming rejection of remuneration as a key element to attracting and maintaining good staff.
On the other hand, HR management appears to be bang-on the money when it comes to the importance of mentoring programs, with most responding that while informal mentoring was common, most were not interested establishing formalised mentoring relationships.
And who was the worst? If you published that, the worst companies might actually be so embarrassed they might lift their game.