IBM

IBM supports a very flexible work schedule, focused on getting the job done rather than what hours were worked during the day. Many jobs also allow for some, all, or as-needed portion of the week to be worked from home at the employee's discretion. Vacation time is self-managed and very flexible. The work environment (at least in Austin) is extremely casual.

There is a mind-numbing array of resources available to employees, including:

• Freely available records detailing corporate policies
• HR records
• IT systems
• Capital requests
• Tools for managing a corporate charge card
• Tools for booking your own corporate travel
• On-line libraries
• Surplus stores
• Education
• Book ordering
• Volume printing
• Recreational activities
• Parks and facilities, etc., etc.

IBM also rewards innovation with awards for patent contributions.

Resource reductions without backfilling (at least in North America) leave too few resources overcommitted and burnt-out, dreading the yearly review cycle.

Intranet search bites (i.e., while there are a mind-numbing array of services available, finding them is never easy).

The 5 appraisal rankings of the yearly review cycle are broken. The lowest ranking is never given. The second lowest ranking is a kiss-of-death that will effectively prevent any employee from transferring departments, isolating the worker in the job where results are considered insufficient. Getting the best ranking frequently requires personal sacrifice to a level that has led to separation from family or personal life, hence many do not aspire to this level of contribution anymore.

This leaves only 2 rankings acceptable to the majority of the workforce, with a natural pecking order associated.

Do not consider current ROI to investors as the measure of success. Rather, focus on providing innovative technology valuable to businesses, and the ROI to investors will naturally follow.