Looking at the list of employee perks at XE.com, it’s easy to mistake the Toronto-based provider of online foreign exchange tools and services for a large technology firm.
On-site gym with high-end equipment, change rooms and showers? Check. A games room where employees can play table tennis, air hockey and foosball? Check. Comprehensive medical and dental benefits, RRSP matching contributions, and maternity benefit top-up to 95 per cent of salary? Check, check, check.
Generous salaries? Yup, got that too.
But for all its bells and whistles, not to mention its tremendous growth trajectory since it launched in 1993, XE.com is a small business with 25 employees working out of its 12,000-square-foot headquarters in Newmarket, just northeast of Toronto.
“We’re a small company that’s growing,” says Steven Dengler, XE.com’s co-founder and CEO. “We began with two people in 1993, we’ve grown to a team of about 25 people, and now we’re looking to bring that number up to 30.”
In the race to be an employer of choice in what is expected to be a tight labour market, many small companies like XE.com are going the extra mile. They have to: While some workers seek out the coziness and entrepreneurial atmosphere of a small company, many still prefer the prestige and generally higher salaries offered by large employers.
For small companies to be seen as the place to work, they have to work hard to overcome a number of challenges peculiar to small enterprise – from a limited ability to promote employees to a fishbowl environment that can easily give rise to micromanagement and personality conflicts.
“The main challenge is getting the word out that you're a good place to work for,” Mr. Dengler says. “A lot of people assume that because you're a smaller company you won’t have a lot of the things that are typically found in larger companies – like a gym, flex hours or maternity leave top-up.”
Even when a company offers generous employee benefits, some workers shy away because they're worried there won’t be enough room for career advancement.
Gary Gannage, president and CEO of the Association of Management, Administrative and Professional Crown Employees of Ontario, or AMAPCEO, says that’s a reality he and his hiring managers don’t hide from prospective employees.
AMAPCEO, a union representing Ontario government and agency employees, has eight types of jobs within its hierarchy, Mr. Gannage says. Workers hoping to climb the corporate ladder will find themselves limited to only a few rungs.
But despite this, AMAPCEO enjoys low employee turnover, Mr. Gannage adds. “Part of the reason people are staying is we do exciting work,” he says. “There are opportunities within their current role.”
Mr. Dengler says ambitious workers may find larger opportunities in small companies, especially one that’s rapidly growing. At XE.com, more than 35 per cent of employees have had “significant career advancement” since they joined the company, he says.
“So, for example, a woman who started off answering phones as a customer service representative is now our marketing and SEO manager, while our customer service manager started out doing customer support,” Mr. Dengler says. “And the third person who joined our company in 2000 as someone who did a little bit of everything is now executive vice president.”
With so much emphasis these days on corporate culture, small companies need to be extra careful about hiring people with compatible working styles and personalities.
It’s not unusual in large companies for employees to work in isolation in their offices or walled-in cubicles. But in small companies, “there’s nowhere to hide,” Mr. Dengler says.
