I admit—it’s reassuring on your first day at a new job (and new to the other side of the country) to see the Best Small & Medium Companies to Work for in America award up on the wall when you walk in. I already liked what I knew about SuccessFactors from the interview process, but finally seeing the office in person and such accolades on my first day I thought, “Huh, this is going to work out just fine.”

But it’s one thing to have corporate awards displayed for all to see (who wouldn’t?), and quite another to infuse, and continue to infuse, your work culture with all of the things that got a company such an award in the first place. I would soon learn that SuccessFactors didn’t just proudly display these awards, but they displayed their corporate values and unique culture through their people each day.

At first glance, the open office was a frightening thing—desks clustered together throughout the huge floor, no cube walls providing faux separation, no VPs tucked away in corner offices. “What to make of this?” I pondered. “Will everyone see me as I eat my snacks??” After a few weeks here, the value of this sort of office layout was clear. Have a question? Walk right over to the appropriate person and ask them. Working on a collaborative project? Your team mates are just a stone’s throw—or virtual meeting–away and collaboration happens as often as coffee is brewing in the central cafeteria. Need to discuss something with your boss? He or she isn’t in hiding; they’re just a few desks away, in full view. Working on a project with someone in a different SF office than yours? Everyone’s contact info is impossible not to find and working with them feels like they’re just around the corner. At any point in time, you can see coworkers crowded around one computer monitor working on various projects, or colleagues engaging one another in passing as they traverse the floor. While we do have conference rooms, they’re floor to ceiling glass, allowing you to see exactly what sort meeting is going on. It’s that sort of transparent environment that promotes open dialogue, no matter what the project, issue, or challenge, and it’s clear that no one is dilly-dallying here. We’re all taking advantage of the vast network of people around us each day. I may not work on the Customer Success team, but I can see their dedication to our customers each day as they work meticulously through various customer issues. I may not be in Sales, but I can still applaud when a rep rings the bell to indicate a new member to the SuccessFactors family of clients. And I may not report directly to our CEO Lars, but I can still be inspired by his dedication to this company that we see whether he’s in the office, sleeves rolled up just like the rest of us, or fully engaged and sending motivating emails when he’s on the road.

The way that everyone at SuccessFactors interacts with one another–and the real core of those interactions–is a clear testament to why we are proud to receive awards like being one of the Best Small & Medium Companies to Work for in America. And like a Hollywood sequel, it’s not easy to live up to. But I have a feeling that 2008 will be an award-winning year for SFSF as well….

UPDATE! Several weeks after this post was written, SuccessFactors does it again! We were recently named one of the Best Places to Work in the Bay Area.

A good intro to SuccessFactors NEXT comes from this article in Information Week titled “Younger Workers Demanding Web 2.0 Tech On The Job.” Perhaps the title says it all, but the idea is, as Susan Feldman from IDC puts it, “that with Web 2.0 technologies increasingly becoming part of people’s social lives, they will demand that it be part of their work lives, as well.”
SuccessFactors NEXT is about exactly that - bringing web 2.0 technologies to the workplace.

If you’re not sure what web 2.0 means, don’t fret. It’s not all that radical a concept – and not everyone agrees on what it is. To some, it means increased collaboration enabled through internet technologies. To others it means more interactive websites leveraging technology that makes interactions more intuitive and realistic. And still to others, it’s an approach to the Internet that has to do with “user-generated” content and online communities.

To us, it’s all of those things. NEXT is about making Performance & Talent Management easier, more interesting and, dare we say it, more fun. If people aren’t motivated and engaged with your system, it doesn’t quite matter how many features and functions it has. People need to get involved, and NEXT is all (and only) about creating compelling reasons for them to do so.