With the rise of social media and influencer culture, it seems like blogging is at its peak. Almost everyone has a blog now in some form or another, and logical questions arise:
Why should we write a blog? There are millions of blogs out there. What’s the point of adding another one into the mix?
Many articles have been written as to whether blogging is a necessary and effective tool for companies to “get known” or not. There are many reasons why you might wish to start a blog, and there are plenty of reasons why you shouldn’t. But we will not write about that. Let’s just state that, according to HubSpot, around 60% of people read blogs at least once a week.
Companies can create informative content for readers for little to no cost and keep up a more personal relationship with their clients and, as in our case, potential employees.
The level of success depends on what we are blogging about.
Blogging is a great way to show technical competences (after all, we are a software development company), people development strategies, and cultural context, exhibit use cases, create fruitful business opportunities, and attract the best possible talents on the market – those whose values match our company’s. Let’s dive into our perspective topic areas.
Coding the future, one person at a time
For us, good software is the result of well-managed and educated employees, in whose progress we invest most of our efforts. We build the company around our people, not the other way around. This approach has been more time and resource-consuming, but it is far more rewarding. Our slogan, building people and software, refers to the people-first mindset we hold. We take care of people by providing meaningful work, offering opportunities for professional advancement, and valuing work-life balance.
A large part of our content will be driven by the empirical evidence that shows there is a gap between the skills employees possess and what is needed on the market. More specifically, about 70% of employees feel there is a gap between the skills they have and the skills they need to best perform their job. Reskilling and upskilling have become a necessity, and initiatives to invest in employee learning and development is part of our personal development plan.
Employees value learning and development opportunities, so it’s no surprise that they are more likely to stay with companies that invest in their continued education. Organizations with successful training programs typically see a significant increase in employee retention (retention rates rise 30-50% for companies with strong learning cultures).
Blogging is intended to serve as extended window shopping for prospective employees, developers, and non-developers, in our case, those who find a personal fit with our culture, approach to personal development, and software building.
34% of employees who left their previous jobs were motivated to do so by more career development opportunities. 86% of millennials would be kept from leaving their current position if training and development were offered by their employer. 70% of employees would be somewhat likely to leave their current jobs to work for an organization known for investing in employee development and learning.
A positive learning curve is a must at Leapwise: mentorship programs and weekly code reviews nurture collaboration, while certification paths, best international conferences, books from the company library, and specialized training like Growth Tribe, Java Champion, and JNation enhance our collective knowledge. We foster a culture of polyvalent interests, as we encourage language courses, soft skills training, and blogging.
Autonomy for accountability
Software development starts with the selection process, and not with the first line of code. We are not everyone’s cup of tea, and that is completely fine. It is necessary to communicate proper expectations and depict the company’s culture in an honest manner.
The responsibility of every company is to continuously invest in its employees, nurture trust, and give genuine and thorough feedback, not just the words employees want to hear. People experience doesn’t mean beer parties or Ping-Pong tables in the living room.
Different surveys in the last couple of years suggested that only 26% of workers say they are actively engaged on the job. It was also suggested that this lack of engagement and low motivation was largely the result of being treated like children. One of the least-understood truisms of employee management is that people tend to behave in accordance with the expectations placed on them – your employees are adults, treat them as such.
If you want to have the best possible team, you need to treat your people like they are never going to leave the company. Create an environment in which employees are valued, but also held accountable- autonomy and trust in exchange for accountability. It’s difficult, but it’s the right way to go.
It took me years to understand that troublesome relationships between employees and companies are not necessarily a consequence of a bad (group of) people, but rather just not a good fit. Like any relationship, not all need to be stayed in.
Having all this in mind, the topics on employee experience, culture, selection process, and onboarding will also be subjects of our future blogs.
Authority and responsibility of publicized content
A cornerstone of every top-tier software is manifested through our adherence to clean code principles and profound domain knowledge, as we wrote in more detail in our recent blog. We prevent technical debt by following a steadfast approach to software architecture and development guidelines. Our methodical approach ensures that we think every detail through, sketching and planning comprehensively before execution. We foster a culture that cherishes professionalism and attention to detail by continuously investing in human capital. In plain English ☺, everything we know and are good at, we will share with you!
In recent years, we have witnessed a hyperproduction of content, and consequently, accountability for the written word sometimes falls short.
It is of great importance to stay behind standard buzzwords and phrases- there must be some track record or, otherwise, it just sounds like a PR pamphlet without any professional leverage. Let us therefore address the elephant in the room– we need to look at the content we’re creating as a responsibility.
People crave knowledge, so content creation for the sake of educating, informing, or motivating will give us a lot of room to share everything we know.
Content creation shapes our culture, and today’s culture shapes tomorrow’s decisions.
We will not write unless writing involves an intellectual exchange of thoughts. All content will be accurate, empirical, and respectful, with the sole purpose of building trust with readers by being a source of reliable information.
Slowly is the fastest way to get to where you want to be
In a poignant moment in his speech, while accepting his Tony award, Andre De Shields, an American actor, shared his three cardinal rules for longevity: one, surround yourself with people whose eyes light up when they see you coming. Two, slowly is the fastest way to get to where you want to be. And three, the top of one mountain is the bottom of the next, so keep climbing.
There is no rush because your progress is built on the foundation of previous progress. Respectively, you today should be compared to you from yesterday.
When you rush through things, you don’t give them enough time to solidify. This company was built brick by brick, and the same approach will be applied to this blog.
Our blog is not to earn a living
By blogging, we want to create useful and meaningful content and share all our best practices with the community. We would eventually like to earn our right to give you an insight into our competences and knowledge through future series of case studies and skillset- specific content, while prioritizing expertise, integrity, and authenticity to foster mutually beneficial collaborations with our perspective readers and visitors.