A company where people really want to work has one of the most powerful competitive advantages in the game: the ability to hire and field the best team.
Building that advantage can often take years -- decades or more. That’s just the way it is with employer reputations. They’re built career by career, annual report by annual report, crisis by crisis (because every company has one or two of them), and recovery by recovery.
In today’s media-saturated world, however, there is a major exception to the generally slow pace of reputation-building. Companies can become preferred employers virtually overnight thanks to the “buzz factor,” which is as potent as it is fast-acting. In a technology-based company, buzz usually comes with an exciting breakthrough or paradigm-altering product or service. Google, Amazon, and Twitter are perfect examples. Buzz can also come from having a glamorous or prestigious brand, like Chanel or Ferrari.
But across all of these magnetic companies, there are a few big common denominators.
Read more