Yahoo has been a powerful player in the tech and internet world since the 90s, been the target of a lot of strong opinions both good and bad, and made a Glassdoor best places to work and best CEO list. The company holds a rather unique and interesting place in the corporate world, one of ignominy, guts, controversy, and free food. That list should give you an indication of the singularity of the company we’re getting ready to explore. Get ahead of the hiring game with our free online recruitment system! You can start using Recruiteze today for free!
5 Hiring Lessons We Can Learn from Yahoo!
#1. The Importance of Food
There was a long, probably undefined and fluid period of time in the latter half of Yahoo’s stretch, they’ve recently been acquired by Verizon, where employees were disheartened and ashamed by the company’s lack of importance in the public’s eyes. Much of that negativity existed before Marissa Mayer became their CEO and some of it lingered afterwards.
A longtime employee at Yahoo, Jelena Woehr, included this story in a post she wrote about Marissa Mayer. It was actually intended to illustrate a different point than the one I’m making now, but it does lead into and indirectly describe the importance of food.
“To truly understand how soul-crushing it was to work at Yahoo in pre-Marissa times, you should have been in Sunnyvale (I was, on a business trip) on the day Marissa announced free food in the company’s cafeterias. People scrambled to stuff themselves as if the announcement would be taken back in a day or two.
The coffee shops were stripped of pastries. Yahoos packed multiple boxes at the salad bar and hoarded them in break room refrigerators. You’d think that the announcement Marissa made was a coming price increase for lunches, not free food. Good news at Yahoo was treated as suspect and likely to change at any minute.”
Glassdoor was summing up pros and cons of working at Yahoo and included the following in a list of words most mentioned in positive comments,
“‘Free food’ is mentioned in 229 reviews. For example: ‘Great benefits including free food at all hours, free phones and laptops, occasional filed trips and parties plus your phone bills are paid.’”
Reviews that included free food also appear on Indeed.
People both really enjoy food and need it. Think about going to a party or being asked to visit someone without being offered food. Everyone hates that.
Well, in reverse, employees value being fed, whether it’s from:
- free food offered onsite,
- being allowed to eat the business’ menu options for free,
- being given a long enough lunch break to really sit down and have a relaxing and healthy meal,
- having great eating options paid for by the employer.
It’s also practical. It saves employees money, promotes wellness when you’re offering healthy options, and keeps employees onsite when you’re offering food onsite so they can still mingle and collaborate.
So, if you’re thinking of building or tweaking your benefits plan, give the inclusion of food serious consideration. It can be an inexpensive option to provide a lot of value to your employees and your business by addressing a wide variety of desires and needs.
#2. Making Hard Decisions
That heading should probably be the job description for a CEO, but that doesn’t mean people do it every time they should, that they aren’t afraid of being unpopular, don’t lose sight of their main goal, and don’t make mistakes doing it. Marissa Mayer is well known for being willing to make unusual and/or controversial decisions. Her most widely discussed decision of this sort was her choice in 2013 to rein in Yahoo’s remote work policy.
Mayer had already been disappointed with the remote work policy at Yahoo, one where employees were mainly in-office employees but were allowed some remote time. The parking lot was a bit too empty and people were not checking in as they should, but when employees started complaining, Mayer decided to take action.
BusinessInsider described Mayer’s comments at a conference in 2015, “Certain employees ‘who were working really hard on some key products’ had complained to her that they were being hamstrung by absenteeism by coworkers.”
This particular form of remote work had become more about “waiting for the cable guy” than really being productive.
Mayer also wanted to foster a more collaborative environment, as employees had requested.
BusinessInsider quoted her again from the conference, “People are more collaborative, more inventive when people come together.” She brought up a joint effort involving Yahoo’s Weather app and Flickr, “Those things don’t come together unless someone from Flickr runs into someone from Weather in the hallway or cafeteria and has that conversation.”
The memo from 2013 written by head of HR, Jackie Reses, confirms this idea,
“Yahoos,
Over the past few months, we have introduced a number of great benefits and tools to make us more productive, efficient and fun. With the introduction of initiatives like FYI, Goals and PB&J, we want everyone to participate in our culture and contribute to the positive momentum. From Sunnyvale to Santa Monica, Bangalore to Beijing — I think we can all feel the energy and buzz in our offices.
To become the abso