The Value of Culture
Work culture can sometimes feel like an intangible, high brow concept. Reserved for us spoiled kids in tech. I know I’ve had several conversations where I can feel the internal eye roll as I describe the importance of culture to a successful workplace. That’s because the definition of culture is often misunderstood.
Forbes defines work culture as “The shared values, belief systems, attitudes, and the set of assumptions that people in a workplace share.”
This applies to everyone, every company, everywhere. Whether we realize it or not, your work culture is one of the main reasons you keep coming back to your job.
Assuming that statement is true, how do we create and sustain an amazing work culture? Here’s a few ideas.
Flexible Work
Right now there are major conversations happening around Return to Office (RTO), the Future of Work (FOW) and if Hybrid working models, are… well, working. (Shocker - they’re not.)
That’s because labeling yourself in one camp or the other is unrealistic. Remote work can’t work without IRL; IRL can’t work without remote. And hybrid is just a fancy way of saying - “We all want different things - so we’re going to do all the things.”
A large factor in creating a healthy work culture is the freedom of choice. Not the illusion of choice, like allowing you to pick the 2 days you must be in the office. An actual choice in how you live and work. Otherwise known as flexibility. So I’m coining a new phrase “Flexible Work.”
The tech giant, Atlassian, is a great example of a company who perfectly demonstrates my definition of “Flexible Work.” Before the pandemic, Atlassian had a predominantly in-office culture. They supported remote work, but were by no means a remote-first company. However, during covid they realized embracing a flexible working model would allow them to retain their incredible team, so they developed Team Anywhere. A completely new branch of their organization devoted to supporting flexible work. As an Atlassian you now chose where you worked, how you worked and when you worked. Once Covid restrictions lifted and offices reopened, it didn’t change. People just had more options - You could choose to remain working from home, go into the office when it suited you, or be part of the rich office culture every day. The choice was yours.
Because of this bold and innovative decision their culture flourished. They are now a prominent voice for the Future of Work.
Of course, flexibility like this requires structure and parameters to keep it operating smoothly. Definitely easier said than done…but possible. And If I dare say it, necessary. So if you want to create and sustain world class culture, I encourage you to brainstorm how you can incorporate Flexible Work for your teams.
Company Values
Personally, I don’t think enough emphasis is put on the importance of creating Values. Values outline who you are as a company. They inspire and guide your current team and determine and shape your future one. When customers visit your website the values speak before you ever do. Most importantly they have a direct impact on fostering successful culture.
Let’s take Lego, for example. When you think of Lego, what comes to mind? Collaboration? Brilliance? Family? Quality?...this is not a coincidence. This is the mark of successful brand values. Lego’s core values are Imagination, Creativity, Fun, Learning, Caring, and Quality. They believe enriching playtime should be accessible to all. That it is foundational to a happy, healthy and well-balanced life. These are not just customer-facing values either, but the philosophy that guides their internal team practices. For instance, they have a “Play Day.” One day a year where all Lego employees around the world take the day to create and have fun. In Lego’s words “It’s all about building relationships, sparking creativity and exploring the power of play.”
Building their business around their values has fostered a culture of fairness, trust, and inclusivity that is visible in everything that they do. They understand that when it comes to culture cultivation, values can be your North star. Follow them and you’ll never get lost.
Onboarding Practices
Imagine this…You’re a recruiter for your company and you’ve just landed a coveted new team member. The hiring process couldn’t have gone better! You painstakingly held their hand through it all; You talked up the team and culture, boasted about their adherence to the values, secured the offer of their dreams and assured them they made the best decision possible joining Company X.
Fast forward to their first day…They are onboarding remotely, they can’t get on to the company VPN, Slack won’t work, and the “mentor” you assigned to greet them is a no-show.
The fantastic experience they had during the hiring process is a distant memory. This abysmal start is now their first impression of your company.
Granted this an extreme example, but what’s not extreme is the impact a rocky onboarding process has on your employees.
Your onboarding program is their introduction to your culture. You are literally telling them what’s important to us as a company. When you don’t have an onboarding program that is aligned with your culture and speaks to your values, you are very loudly proclaiming, “your employee experience doesn’t matter, we’re just here to work.”
That’s a really hard first impression to erase. Luckily, it’s not impossible. Here’s a few tips to make your onboarding the best it can be.
Onboard employees IRL. If possible, your employees should not be onboarding remotely. This is a golden opportunity to make them feel valued. Make them feel that the company is excited for them to join the team. I understand that this isn’t always possible in the way we would like to do it. Especially if you're a remote-first start-up, you might not have the means to fly in every new employee. However, there are ways in which you can be more thoughtful about the onboarding process. Such as, booking a Wework space for them to go to on their first day; or arranging for them to co-work with a teammate located in their area. This will take minimal effort on your part, but have a huge impact on your new hire.
Assign them a mentor. This mentor should be introduced right after the offer is made, preferably on the same call. They should work in tandem with the hiring manager to create a smooth transition onto the team. Expert tip: This mentor should not be a manager. It’s best if it’s someone of the same role or level. Give them a friend.
Get your tools right. No matter the size of the team you should be using onboarding software to make the process more efficient and personal. Products like BambooHR, Workday or ELoomi have amazing and fully customizable user experiences. “Getting the tools right” also includes making sure they have access to all the things they will need from day 1. The purpose of these tools should be clearly communicated in their onboarding program and training should be offered on any programs or platforms they are unfamiliar with. For example: “Our team uses Google Sheets and Docs, Slack for all communication, Zoom for video conferencing, and Notion to keep it all organized. If needed there are tutorials for all located on your onboarding dashboard.”
I guarantee that if you take great care in a first-class onboarding experience you will see a visible impact across your company and culture.
Events Schedule
When I worked at Hadassah, a jewish non-profit based in Manhattan, one of my favorite tools was the organization-wide events calendar. Every December all employees would receive a physical calendar of events for the year to come. The Events Director had taken great care in documenting every major holiday (Including all faiths), board meetings, and conferences. Now that I’m an experienced event planner I have a greater appreciation for what a giant undertaking this was. For those of you who are unfamiliar with annual events planning, allow me to enlighten you.
The Events Director had to coordinate with our leadership, 10 extremely opinionated individuals, most of which were volunteers, and identify dates for multiple board meetings and conferences months in advance. If this wasn’t enough she had to avoid blackout dates, which would include major religious and bank holidays. Considering Hadassah is a Jewish organization, that included honoring ALL Jewish holidays…all 15 annual holidays. Which basically meant September and October were out of the running completely. Keep in mind she was doing this while simultaneously executing the events on the current year's calendar.
I now know this woman was a wizard. All kidding aside this was an incredible and necessary practice considering the enormous responsibility ahead of her. Looking back I would have loved to ask her whether she did this simply because it made her life easier, or if the cultural impact it had was intentional. Creating this events calendar provided transparency and flexibility for the team, which in turn promoted a more relaxed and focused environment. Regardless of her intent, the positive effect it had on the culture was clear. Which is why the creation of an events plan is a practice I suggest for all the teams I work with.
I encourage you to work with your teams to map out your own annual events plan. Even if it’s a loose plan, i.e. there will be 2 IRL offsites this year - one in March and the other in Sept. Exact Dates TBD. Setting expectations, minimal or not, allows your people to plan their lives accordingly, and will only prove to demonstrate your investment in their employee experience and well being.
And guess what that impacts….yup, thriving culture!
I leave you with this…
Okay, so let’s consider that this concept still isn’t landing for you. Sounds like a lot of work for something you think isn’t that important anyway, right?. Okay, agree to disagree.
However, I’m not a person that gives up that easily. So let me leave you with this last nugget to ponder. You’re offered the role of your dreams! You’re getting competitive pay, stock options, unlimited vacation days, and they promise you, you can come into the office at your discretion. You hear whispers about possible toxic culture practices, but you believe you’re getting enough that it won’t matter.
Fast forward a couple of months - Your boss is a micro-managing workaholic, who expects you to be the same. You're answering emails at all hours of the night, fearing if you don’t your team will think you're slacking off. Meanwhile company leadership is, well they’re present but not vocal or helpful in any way that matters. You’ve never met your team in person and there is no plan that you ever will. To top it all off your company has decided to mandate a return to office. Which means you will have a 3-hour commute, 2 days a week to sit in an office on a zoom call.
Still think culture doesn’t matter?
The truth is perks & benny’s get the talent in the door…Culture is what keeps them.
