Happiness over Bonuses?

I sat in a meeting yesterday with a HR representative of a wonderful Scandinavian owned organisation.  I posed the question, "why would people want to work for you?", to which her initial response was, "we don't actually pay bonuses, the swedes just don't do it". 

I thought nothing more of it in the second that she paused.  She then spoke passionately about the values, ethics and morality of the organisation for more than 15 minutes.  It was outlined how ambitious the firm are, but at the centre of this ambition lay the absolute need to treat their staff with the upmost respect and ensure their happiness in the work place.

I left the meeting enthused.  I wanted to sell the story of the business to candidates and partner the firm in securing the best staff!  To me, I knew this was a place where IT/Change staff will not only be happy, but be allowed to flourish. 

I find myself wanting to understand business culture and work with people centric firms.  I feel disengaged with profit driven corporates (the ones whose opening gambit would have been "we pay exceptional bonuses"), the older I get in the industry. 

I think us Brits could learn a lot from the scandos!  Happiness before bonuses.