One of the best things about freelancing at this one company was the copious snack collection offered free to all workers. Granola bars, fruit, juice, chips, artisan coffee—and yes, fresh peanut butter right from the machine.
So when it fell upon me to write a career page that portrayed the company’s outstanding opportunities as well as its personality, naturally the peanut butter machine had to play a role.
Peanut butter to me is the ultimate comfort food, sustaining while treating—an incomparable combo with bananas, granola, yogurt and more. And the fact that they had this machine: I mean it was this beast, a real commercial model with a stainless flip switch. When you turned it on, the floor shook as ribbons of gooey goodness swirled into your awaiting cup.
It was a natural metaphor for a company that knew a quirky-but-good idea when they saw one. And it said so much about the wholesomeness of the culture and the company’s extravagant generosity toward its employees.
Don’t take the usual route on your company’s employment or culture pages. Every company wants to portray itself to recruits as a work-hard-play-hard innovator that cares about its people, but if you don’t back it up, your words won’t ring true. You have to dig into the details and “personal” aspects of your company that you may take for granted. The little things can say a lot about you.
So take a chance. Prospective employees make decisions for a lot of reasons outside of company name and compensation. They look for cues. They want to know how they’ll fit into your culture and big plan. They’re human after all. That’s why the human stuff matters…like a peanut butter machine.
When you’re writing your company’s culture page or “work for us” text, are you shining a light on your company’s unique personality as well as your growth plans, mission and values?
Stand out by letting the real you out.
And if you’re having a hard time looking at yourself from the outside in, contact me. I’ll be happy to help you find your own personal peanut butter machine.
