How do you attract high quality employees when you are a small company? This is the question we face all the time. As a small growing company, how can we stand out to attract the best talent? As with all small businesses, we face many challenges in doing business - attracting good people with limited resources is just one of those challenges, mostly because people believe that employment with a small business equals the following things: lack of stability, lower salary, uncertainty, risk, job ambiguity and poor benefits. How can we overcome these perceptions and hire good, quality people who will share our mission and help us meet our objectives? First, it is helpful to understand what the company does and what we see as our customers' problem space.

Elluminates Software focuses on enterprise architecture, systems engineering and business analytics to help our customers be more informed, more prepared and able to meet their most pressing challenges, and therefore build systems that make a difference.

So what does that mean for our employees? Our mission for our employees is to:

- offer a positive, productive and collaborative work environment; and,
- allow each employee to grow, learn and excel at what they do; and,
- provide a place where integrity, honesty and the highest craftsmanship are paramount.

Let's focus on some of those negative perceptions people have of small businesses.

Lack of stability - Job stability seems to be a concern with everyone in today's economy, whether the job is with a small or a large company. Elluminates Software has been around since 2003. Since our founding, we have had a steady stream of ever larger and more complex projects and have many more projects pending. Also, our strategy is to go after positions that focus on the company's core strengths. Our strategy is not to try to fill positions that might make us money but aren't related to our core business. By using this strategy we hope that we can continually use that person's expertise in other projects around the company.

Lower salary - Our compensation strategy is to hire at market level, so we are never out of the competition's range. We benchmark our salaries against other companies and make sure we are offering a competitive salary. We also have a bonus structure for performance and new business opportunities.

Poor benefits - When I started working for Elluminates Software, the company only offered a 401(k) plan. Now I don't think you could tell our benefits summary from a large company's. We have a full benefits offering including health insurance, long- and short-term disability insurance, life insurance and flexible spending accounts. Not to mention an employee referral bonus plan, tuition reimbursement, paid time-off and flexible working arrangements.

Job ambiguity - Our strategy is to hire well and keep our employees motivated and focused. Employees in small businesses often have to play more than one role. For a technical person, this often means managing people or projects. They may not want to do this or have any experience doing this. It's important to communicate this to a prospective employee, as well as communicate what the company will do to help them be successful in that role. Also, it's important to us to keep our employees interested in their work. Research shows that most people's job satisfaction is tied to the interest they have in their work, not salary or benefits.

On the flip side, there are some negative aspects to working in a large company. How can you stand out in a large company? How can you achieve job satisfaction in a large company, where you can be just another faceless employee? There are some extremely appealing aspects to working at a small business. You can actually affect change. You can play a key role in daily operations. You are a vital part of the team. At Elluminates Software you are not just another employee.