Who do you want to work for?

Readers may be interested in this research published by Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2013/07/12/the-best-enterprise-software-companies-and-ceos-to-work-for-in-2013-2/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=linkedin. It details what people think about the companies they work for: would they recommend that their friends take a job there and what do they think of the CEO.

There are some interesting results: top of the heap comes Google, followed by InterSystems and Citrix. However, it’s the anomalies that are most interesting. For example, 80% of employees at HP approve of the CEO but only 43% would recommend working there. Conversely, 77% of staff at Microsoft would recommend employment but only 47% approve of the CEO.

Who are the pits? Well, some of the companies I admit to never having heard of, but of those that I have, companies scoring less than 50% on both counts include Ariba (acquired by SAP), Avaya, Epicor, Sage North America, NEC Corporation of America, Fiserv and Siemens Enterprise Communications.

Does this matter much? Actually, I think it does: if you don’t think much of your CEO and you don’t like the place that you’re working either then morale is going to be low. And low morale suggests high staff turnover. Poor results on surveys like this are a contra-indicator for anyone seeking to license relevant technology.