Do You Want to be on the “Great Place to Work” List?

I was describing my startup company, 4TLAS (pronounced “atlas”), to someone recently, and the person said something like, “Maybe someday you’ll get on the Great Places to Work list!”

Hmmm. Is that what we want? 

I mean, yeah, we definitely want our people to love working here. We want it to be a great place to work. But do we want/need to be formally recognized by some external entity?

If you go to Fortune’s Great Place to Work list for 2024, you’ll notice a few things:

1. The Great Place to Work list is a business. 
2. They created the criteria (ie, KPI’s).
3. They tell you whether you win.

All of that is fine if you’re OK signing up for that game. 

But, KPIs will be gamed, the criteria they choose might not be what we care about, and we might value someone who thinks differently about this. 

Here’s what we’re going to do to be a great place to work:

• Ensure our people’s mission is aligned with our mission
• Encourage their curiosity
• Empower them
• Challenge them
• Value them
• Grow them
• Reward them

So yes, I definitely want 4TLAS to be a great place to work, but we don’t need to be on a list.