Ryan Carson is at his desk in Portland, Oregon. As chief executive of Treehouse, a business that makes and sells training videos in web design and tech skills, he shares his office with three co-workers.

瑞恩•卡森(Ryan Carson)坐在自己位于俄勒冈州波特兰市的办公桌前。他是Treehouse的首席执行官，与三名同事共享这间办公室。Treehouse是一家制作和销售网页设计与科技技能培训视频的公司。

But this is not a typical CEO corner office. In fact, it is on the third floor of Mr Carson’s family home. He has built a 54-strong business based on a distinctive work culture: most emp­loyees work at home and the business operates on a four-day week, Monday to Thursday.

不过，卡森的办公室并不是首席执行官通常待的那种“角落办公室”。实际上，这间办公室位于他住所的三楼。他建立的这家公司有54人，工作文化与众不同：公司的大多数员工都在家上班，而且每周只运营四天，从周一到周四。

In addition, Treehouse offers not only what Mr Carson describes as an “insane amount of holiday”; it also gives each staff member $5,000 to set up their home offices, free lunches and mobile phones.

除此之外，Treehouse还向员工提供卡森所称的“多得离谱的假”，给每名员工5000美元供他们建立家庭办公室，并向他们提供免费午餐和手机。

Some human resources professionals may balk at the pricetag, but he argues it is worth it. “If you actually look at the costs of all this, they’re not much when you consider the [return on investment] in loyalty and employee engagement,” he says.

一些人力资源专业人士可能会被这么高昂的福利支出吓住，但卡森却认为这种支出物有所值。他说：“如果你真的去审视一下这种种开销，你就会发现，在考虑员工忠诚度和敬业度（方面的投资回报）后，这些开销其实并不高。”

It is not unusual for employers to offer an attractive package of perks, from grants for training to free meals. But smaller companies such as Treehouse may go to extra lengths to attract new recruits. In competitive sectors with traditionally high staff turnover, such employers find the combination of a congenial work culture and generous benefits not only helps to recruit – and retain – top staff, it can also motivate people to work harder.

雇主提供诱人的一揽子福利——从培训补助到免费用餐——的现象并不罕见。但Treehouse这样的中小企业可能会付出额外的努力来吸引新员工。在员工流失率历来较高的竞争性行业中，这类雇主发现，融洽的工作文化再加上慷慨的福利不仅有助于招入并留住最优秀的员工，还能激励员工更加努力地工作。

Mr Carson cautions that such initiatives deliver optimum productivity only if you recruit the right people. “If you hire the wrong person, none of this works.”

卡森告诫说，只有在招到正确的员工时，这些举措才能产生最优生产率。“如果你招错了人，这些全都不管用。”

Michael Poley has been an employee of the company since February 2011 and is based in Orlando, Florida. “When you see an opening at Treehouse and read about all the perks, you lose your mind a little,” he says. That progressive work culture encouraged Mr Poley to make a big impression when he applied for a job there. “You want to blow them away and demonstrate how much energy and talent you can bring to the organisation,” he says.

麦克•波利(Michael Poley)从2011年2月起就一直是这家公司的员工，目前他住在佛罗里达州的奥兰多。他说：“当你看到Treehouse的职位空缺和种种福利时，你会有种控制不住的冲动。”这种进步的工作文化激励波利在这里求职时努力给公司留下深刻印象。他说：“你会想要深深地打动他们，向他们展示出你能给这家机构带来多少活力和天分。”

Mr Poley’s co-worker Jim Hoskins says the four-day week has a profound effect on how he works. “The fact that we have only four days of work in the week to get things done pushes us to work smarter and harder.”

波利的同事吉姆•霍斯金斯(Jim Hoskins)表示，每周四天工作制对他的工作方式产生了深远的影响。“我们每周只能用四个工作日来把事情做好，这一事实迫使我们更加聪明和更加勤奋地工作。”

Campaign Monitor, based in Sydney, Australia, takes a similar approach to culture and benefits. It provides software for email marketing campaigns. Its careers page boasts an attractive package of perks from surf lessons and generous conference budgets to an on-site chef and private office for every member of the team. “A lot of these perks feed off our single priority, which is the ability for anyone on the team to easily remove distractions when they need to,” says founder David Greiner. “Open plan is the enemy of getting in the zone.”

总部位于澳大利亚悉尼的Campaign Monitor公司也在企业文化和福利方面采取了类似做法。该公司为电子邮件营销活动提供软件。它的招聘信息网页上列有极富吸引力的员工福利，向每名团队成员提供冲浪课程、慷慨的会议预算、驻公司的厨师以及私人办公室。Campaign Monitor创始人戴维•格雷纳(David Greiner)表示：“其中许多福利都是为我们的首要目标服务的，这个首要目标就是令团队的每名成员能在必要时轻松排除干扰。开放式办公室是进入状态的大敌。”

The chef and attractive communal spaces are designed to ensure the company eats together every day and socialises, which Mr Greiner says helps keep people both happy and productive. “The most important factor in a rewarding career is doing great work, and the more you can do to help people achieve that, the more likely they are to stick around.”

厨师和有吸引力的公共空间是用来确保公司员工每天一同用餐和展开社交。格雷纳表示，这既有助于让员工有个愉快的心情，又有助于让他们保持较高的生产率。“有价值的职业生涯中最重要的元素就是做伟大的工作，你越是能够提供更多的东西帮助人们实现这一点，他们就越有可能留下来。”

Such benefits may be viable for some employers but most small businesses would struggle to offer on-site chefs. The opportunity is to create a working culture that becomes a draw.

对有些雇主来说，提供这样的福利也许是切实可行的。但大多数小企业很难配备驻公司的厨师，它们的机会在于建立富有吸引力的工作文化。

Jools Walker is sales and marketing manager at Vulpine, a south London-based business selling cycling apparel. “For me, the biggest perk is the work culture here as it is directly linked to my passions – cycling and fashion. As clichéd as it sounds, it’s very much a dream come true,” says Ms Walker, who was previously admissions officer at the University of East London and is the cycle and fashion blogger, Lady Vélo.

乔斯•沃克(Jools Walker，见上图)是Vulpine公司的销售与营销经理，该公司是一家总部位于南伦敦的销售自行车运动服装的企业。沃克表示：“对我来说，最大的福利就是这里的工作文化，它与我的爱好——自行车运动和时尚——直接相关。下面这句话听起来也许像是陈词滥调，但在很大程度上我的确是‘梦想成真’了。”沃克之前曾任英国东伦敦大学(University of East London)招生官员，她还是网名为“韦洛夫人”(Lady Vélo)的自行车运动及时尚博客写手。

That love of cycling mixed with a relaxed culture where brainstorming happens in the local park rather than the office creates an environment that she finds more productive. “Money wasn’t my motivation in my move to Vulpine. Working somewhere that suited my passions, as well as being around people who feel the same as me about cycling, was too perfect an opportunity to miss,” she says.

在Vulpine的工作文化中，连头脑风暴都是在当地公园里完成的。这种轻松的工作文化，再加上沃克对自行车运动的热爱，形成了一种她认为更有效率的工作氛围。沃克说：“我跳槽到Vulpine并不是为了钱。在一个完全匹配我爱好的地方工作，周围满是像我一样热爱自行车运动的人，这种机遇太完美了，实在不容错过。”

Across London in Shoreditch, Drew Benvie is building Battenhall, a communications agency offering employee benefits and a workplace culture designed to attract the best recruits. He has learnt that it is little things – such as giving each staff member an IT budget of £1,200 to spend as they wish – that mean a lot. “It’s the small things that are critical to the success of your business. If you don’t give your colleagues the feeling that they’re being looked after, that will affect performance,” he says.

就在伦敦另一端的肖尔迪奇，德鲁•本韦(Drew Benvie)正在组建Battenhall，这家通讯代理公司提供的工作文化和各种福利，旨在吸引最优秀的员工。本韦得出一条经验，能起大作用的往往是一些不起眼的小事，比如向每名员工提供的1200英镑可随意支配的IT预算。他表示：“小事对企业取得成功至关重要。如果你不能让同事感到他们受到公司的关爱，他们的业绩就会受到影响。”

However, while the Battenhall website boasts home working and “unlimited holiday” allowances as standard, the reality is that most of the team work from the London office. Flexible work cultures may sound attractive but the reality for many businesses is that the workforce needs to be together.

不过，尽管Battenhall的网站把在家办公和“无限假期”福利列为标准待遇，但实际上，该公司的大部分协同工作还是在伦敦的办公室里完成。灵活的工作文化听起来可能很有吸引力，但对许多企业来说，现实情况是员工们需要聚在一起工作。

In fact – as Ms Walker found at Vulpine – at Battenhall it is perhaps the workplace culture that is the big attraction. The nine-strong business is three months old; what attracted candidates was the opportunity to be part of that start-up spirit, to help shape the culture of the business and to be part of its vision to build a distinctive communications agency. “They have the opportunity to co-create the culture and personality of the business. And that’s something you can’t do at Google,” says Mr Benvie.

事实上，正如沃克在Vulpine认识到的，Battenhall的最大吸引力也许正是工作文化本身。这家由9人组成的公司成立只有3个月，其吸引求职者的地方就在于，他们有机会打造这家公司的创业精神、帮助它塑造自己的文化、以及为把它建设成为一家与众不同的通讯代理公司贡献力量。本韦表示：“他们有机会共同塑造这家企业的文化和特质。你在谷歌(Google)可做不到这点。”

Back in Portland, Mr Carson is reflecting on whether he would retain the four-day-week policy if he were to start a new business. “I would, but it’s a heavy decision,” he says. “Now I’ve got kids, I feel life is too freaking short. If I’m doing something that gives me 50 per cent more time with my kids than all the other dads out there – why would I not do that?”

回过头来说说波特兰的卡森。卡森正在思考一个问题，如果他再创办一家企业，他会不会坚持每周工作四天的政策。卡森表示：“应该会的，不过这是一个重大的决定。现在我有了孩子，我感觉生命短得可怕。如果我做的事情能让我比其他父亲多出50%陪伴孩子的时间，我为什么不这么做？”

The reality remains that such work cultures may be deemed too extreme and untenable for bigger businesses, but Mr Carson is optimistic that his approach is not an obstacle to growth. “Every company I have built with a four-day work week has succeeded and Treehouse is the biggest one yet. You can still do this and grow an exciting company.”

在现实中，这类工作文化可能仍被视为太过极端，不适用于规模较大的企业。但卡森乐观地认为，他的办法并不会阻碍企业成长。“我按照四天工作制建立的每家公司都成功了，Treehouse目前是其中最大的一家。你仍可以坚持这种做法，发展起一家令人兴奋的公司。”

But he adds: “Maybe you just need to do it a little slower.”

但他补充道：“也许你需要的，只是在做这件事的时候把节奏放慢一点。”