Bible software company’s CEO: ‘We have great employees and want to keep them happy’

Logos Bible Software has been honored as one of the Best Medium-Sized Companies to Work For in 2014. The Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Award is based on the voluntary input of current and former employees who provide feedback on their jobs, work environments and leadership via Glassdoor’s anonymous online survey.

What began as an after-hours project to sharpen the programming skills of a couple of Microsoft employees became Logos Bible Software in 1992. This small start-up project to make Bibles searchable would eventually lead an industry with innovations in multilingual electronic publishing, linguistics, semantic search, digital asset management and software development and design across every major consumer platform. Logos has grown to more than 360 employees with one campus near Seattle and another in Phoenix.

In 2011, Pritchett reduced the Logos employee manual to a four-word summary: Honor God. Love others. 

“We have great employees and want to keep them happy,” said Bob Pritchett, Logos Bible Software president and CEO. “Long policy documents don’t make people happy; trusting people and giving them autonomy makes them happy.”

The lack of policy papers tends to create transparency—best illustrated by “The $40,000 Mistake,” when an employee’s technical error cost Logos money, but also provided an opportunity to spotlight Logos’ cultural values and customer focus.

Logos employees also enjoy complete discretion regarding their own sick and vacation time and numerous other perks, including an unlimited supply of free beverages; an in-house bike-repair shop; supplies for kayaking, canoeing and disc golf; and an employee lounge, including free movie-, video- and book-lending.

“Logos attracts great employees because of the freedom and power they get to serve our customers, build great tools and get things done,” said Pritchett. “We love what we are creating for our customers, but we also love why we do it.”

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