Scott Scherr, the CEO of Ultimate Software, is clear on the kind of employee he wants at his business software firm. Scherr, a sports fan who has had basketball legend Pat Riley speak to his employees and customers, is looking for “A players” only.
So it’s not a surprise Ultimate is ahead of the game when it comes to recruiting and retaining top talent.
Ultimate is embracing transparency in the recruiting process—making it easier for today’s savvy, data-hungry job seekers to get the inside scoop on what it’s like to work at Ultimate. Scherr and his team also have built a high-trust, high-performing culture that employees are loath to leave. A striking 94 percent of Ultimate employees we surveyed say managers trust people to do a good job without watching over their shoulders, 96 percent say employees are willing to give extra to get the job done and 94 percent say “I want to work here for a long time.”
The commitment to Ultimate by employees also relates to the fact that Scherr has a reputation for not letting people go during tough times. “You stick together,” he has said. “The company doesn’t quit on the employees, and the employees don’t quit on the company.”
Ultimate’s commitment to job security is complemented by quite-open communication and plenty of fun. The firm’s headquarters in South Florida, for example, features a basketball court. The sales team traditionally celebrates the end of the sales year by going to the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas. Employees also enjoy picnics, birthday parties, holiday celebrations and a Customer Service Week, complete with themed events, free meals and employee competitions.
Ultimate’s workplace has earned high praise. Twice, we at Great Place To Work have named it the nation’s very best medium-size workplace. Having grown to more than 2,200 employees, Ultimate now competes for a spot on the large-company list we compile for FORTUNE. And the firm has made that list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For each of the past three years. Recently, Ultimate was named one of the 10 Great Workplaces for Millennials and one of the 20 Great Workplaces in Tech, rankings generated by Great Rated! and published by FORTUNE.
Not surprisingly, Ultimate is taking advantage of these accolades as it seeks new hires. Ultimate calls attention to its strong culture on its Great Rated! review and on our site’s homepage as well as through social media. Its Great Rated! Review is embedded within its Facebook page so that consumers and job seekers alike can find out more about their workplace as they engage with them through social media. The company headlines its LinkedIn home page with the fact that it has been named a FORTUNE 100 Best Company to Work For three years in a row. Ultimate also used a LinkedIn status update to announce that it had been named one of the 20 Great Workplaces in Tech. A recent report by The Talent Board found that 45 percent of job seekers look for more information about a company before they apply – Ultimate makes sure that the good things the company says about its culture are validated by third-party assessments of its workplace that publicly share what Ultimate employees say.
It’s all part of Scherr’s game plan. To attract and hold onto A players, he’s working to build the “ultimate” talent magnet.
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Be sure your talent acquisition teams know how Great Rated! helps support their recruiting efforts! See the best practices examples employers are using to promote their workplace culture in this recorded webinar with Great Rated! CEO Kim Peters and Great Place To Work’s Chris Culkin.
