The celebrations kicked off with a party on Thursday followed by a weekend away at the Hyatt Coolum for employee’s and their partners.
While the weekend away did provide an opportunity to talk shop, it was the personal conversations that I feel pay the biggest dividend.
At Ephox we make great use of digital communication tools like Skype, e-mail and instant messenger to keep in touch. There is something however about talking to someone face-to-face, that allows you to connect on a different level. It’s the conversations over breakfast, the corporate dinner, pre-dinner drinks and while playing tourist that allow you to connect with our colleagues in a way that electronic means just can’t achieve.
In this relaxed environment, you find yourself talking about previous experiences and roles as well as sharing a joke or two. Add to that the ability to meet and talk with your colleagues partner and you begin to build a more complete picture of the person.
So what does this mean for us now we are all back home? The personal connections made enhance our business relationships and communication. The insight gained allows us to filter digital communications through their respective personalities, enriching the experience. In addition, the “back-story” of each person will allow us to better utilise their previous experiences/skills.
]]>This means the R&D team in Brisbane, Australia is expanding. We are currently looking for outstanding Java developers who are graduating soon to join the team.
We’ve got an amazing team building a great product in Java using Agile practices.
If you think you have what it takes and want an opportunity to really kick-start your career then check out our ad on Seek.
]]>
For various reasons, most of which have now been forgotten, the coffee machine ended up being named Fabio.
Recently we had some problems with Fabio and it went in for some repairs. When picked up today we found out that Fabio has made over 10,600 coffees.
So how has a coffee machine aided in productivity? With Fabio out of action this week, it was obvious how having to go out and get coffee changes the flow of work.
With a coffee machine in the office, individual members of team regularly go get coffee when they want it. With the need to go to a local coffee shop however, people tend to all go at the same time.
So next time anyone asks what can best aid the productivity of an engineering team consider a coffee machine in house.
]]>While the Weekend Australian article, “What Interviews foretell” by Karalyn Brown focussed primarily on the interview process from the candidate perspective, there were some good points for employers.
In my career I’ve been through quite a few interview processes, so it came as no surprise that Bob Olivier, director of Olivier recruitment
believes employers can easily overlook how a candidate matches the values and working style of an organisation – the “cultural fit”
One of the many attributes I’m looking for when we interview at Ephox is how the person will “fit” into our team. So while I’m ensuring the candidate gets a chance to evaluate our culture, we also ensure they will fit into the team through the code review and Coffee Interview.
Rightly so, Steve Begg, general manager of operations of executive recruiters Tanner Menzies and Olivier
believe that the recruitment process provides a glimpse into a company’s working culture. A formal series of interviews can indicate a more bureaucratic employer. A “meet the team” chat reflects a more open and casual working style. However, Begg stresses both method are valid recruitment tools
At Ephox we have what I believe is a good mix of formal and casual in our interview process. In addition, I’m are upfront at the beginning of the interview process with what the process is.
So what is our process? Well like many companies we start with a phone interview. As a significant amount of our communication is with overseas clients and our other offices, this also gives us a chance to evaluate how well a candidate can communicate on the phone.
We then move to a more formal, in office interview. We delve into the candidates abilities and also talk about us and the role, leaving nothing hidden. We want candidates to want to work with us so make sure they have the information to do so.
Successful candidates are then asked to do a coding exercise but unlike most “formal” ones, ours is a little more candidate friendly. We email the candidate a simple program requirements and ask them to submit the code, in their preferred language, when they have been able to complete it. After submission, we get the candidate back in to discuss the code and the solution approach with a couple of the senior engineers. This gives the candidate a chance to gauge what it is like to work within the team, and importantly for us, gives us a chance to evaluate how the candidate solves problems and discusses solutions.
Finally, if all goes well, we have the coffee interview to allow the entire team to participate in the process.
Why do we go to all this trouble to ensure both the candidate, the team and the company fit together? For one thing, we have very good retention and want to keep it that way.
]]>The masseur arrived with their own special chair and relaxing music and setup in our boardroom. We each had a 15min massage and the general consensus was a big thumbs up. So we shall continue these as part of our overall health & well-being initiative.
]]>
I was reading an article in a recent Campus Review entitled “Wellness & retention” which discussed some of these options.
Universities have traditionally not been the highest paid positions, so retention of good IT staff in this climate is becoming an increasing problem. The University of South Australia has tried a different approach to just competing on salaries.
Over the past five years, its 100-strong IT team has been the focus of a wellness program aimed at encouraging employees and recruitment prospects to view the university as an employer of choice.
Some of the things that UniSA has undertaken are gym passes, weekly exercise programs, fresh fruit, fruit juices in summer, and soup in winter.
What they found was this focus on health of their staff resulted in a drop in attrition to 2%. It also had side benefits
The program costs about $15,000 a year but pays for itself with a reduction in sick days.
I believe there are a number of factors beyond just pure salary that influences a person’s decision to stay with a company. Things like culture, colleagues/team, stress, management and how much the company values them.
At Ephox we’ve always had a great culture of fun. In addition, we have a great coffee machine, go to the pub on Friday’s for roast lunch and have beers at the end of the week.
Recently I asked the team what additional things we’d like to have in the office. I was looking for suggestions that meet one or more of the following criteria;
I got some interesting responses including fresh fruit, monthly neck/shoulder massages and quarterly team events. So we’ve started getting in fresh fruit, are about to trial in office massage and have nominated one of the team to be the coordinator for a team event.
I’d be really interested in what other companies are doing to retain great staff other than paying higher salaries.
]]>
At Ephox we have a good collection of technical books and I’m always looking for new ones to add. It was suggested that we should get a copy of “Head First Design Patterns”. As the Head First series are designed to be written in, I purchased a copy for each member of the team.
I was sure it was a good decision when the day after they arrived one of the team stopped me to tell me how good it was. This was quickly followed up by one of my senior engineers raving about how easy and compelling it was to read. Finally, one of the team rang me on the weekend prior to their week of leave to confirm they could write in the book, as they were really getting into it.
So, if you want a low cost form of training, don’t just buy books for your team library, but actually give them their own copies.
]]>Our CCAs are evolving into more advanced research that resemble 20% time, with projects spanning many CCAs. So when Atlassian announced it was going to emulate the Google’s 20% time model I was keen to see how it worked out for them.
It was with interested then that I read the recent followup on the progress over the last 10 weeks. In the post Charles reflected on their progress to date with a series of questions put to the developers.
The one I was most interested in was “How much time have you had to work on it?”. Charles summarised the responses by saying
almost all the responses were in the 2-3 day mark, and none higher.
This is closer to 4-6% for the 10 weeks they’ve been going than 20%. Why is this low?
In theory, saying to developers you can devote 20% of your time to do research/personal projects should result in 20% time being spent. The problem, as I see it, is that most project are on tight deadlines, and developers are committed to completing those project related tasks. A fact that seems to be borne out by the following response
…the biggest problem for developers finding time to work on their projects was fitting it around their scheduled work
So what’s the real problem? Well your projects are planned but no time is set aside in the schedule for 20% time activities. When your developers start working on 20% time, the schedule starts to slip, eating into “buffer” time. If the features then require that buffer time, how does the project manager deal with it? Easy, cancel 20% time.
How do we deal with this? The answer I think lies in a response to the question “if you could improve 20% time in any way, how would you?”
“Mandate that particpants (sic) have to spend 2 days a fortnight on it, otherwise it's difficult to keep the pace up to 20%”
So, when planning a project, not only do we need to put aside time for feature overruns, but also time to accommodate 20% time. Again, all good in theory but at the end of the day, as a product company, we need to deliver product. The trick is to balance the successful delivery of new releases with the obvious benefits that can come from 20% time.
I’ll be very interested in how Atlassian handles this over the remainder of their trial.
]]>
We develop in both Swing and J2EE using agile techniques and have a set of values based on the XP values. We have a fun workplace and are looking for the right people to join us.
This is a great opportunity for someone who wants a fulfilling and rewarding position that takes their careers to the next level.
If you are interested, the job has been released on Seek.com, so check it out and apply.
]]>
The Coffee Interview involves everyone in the the team, except the manager, going out with the potential hire and having a coffee. While discussions can be technical, it's not a technical interview but rather a chance for everyone involved to get to know each other. At the end of the coffee I get consensus from the team as to whether we should hire the person or not.
What we are trying to do in this interview is determine if the team can work with the person, and the person can work with the team. It's a case of ensuring the hire is a good "fit".
By involving everyone the person will work with, we are essentially building an emotional contract between the team and the new hire. These people are the ones who can exert the most influence over the success of the new hire and as such, the Coffee Interview provides a way to invest them in the success of the person.
]]>