I’ve devoted several weeks now to looking at the potentially destructive impact of a negative employee on company culture. But as one loyal reader pointed out, company culture is the overall environment, mainly credited to leadership, in which employees either embrace or run away from. A few quick searches on my part led me to numerous articles about why one company’s culture is preferred over the other and guess what? None of them referenced leadership, employee relations and interpersonal conflicts. No, instead the answers I found led me to ask, is company culture just about the benefits?
When I started Verge Pipe Media, an independent inbound marketing agency in 2010, I didn’t think about culture much. Now, don’t get me wrong: I knew what type of agency I didn’t want to have, and I had a core set of values that are still in place today. What I didn’t have was a mission statement or many perks. We simply couldn’t afford to do more than create a fun atmosphere, with a relaxed dress code (unless clients were present), plenty of beer in the fridge, liquor and wine at the bar, some snacks to power through the afternoon lulls, and team birthday and anniversary lunches. Within the first 18 months, we adopted an unlimited vacation policy, paid time off for part-time employees, monthly offsite team meetings, and encouraged our full-time employees to read by purchasing a business or non-fiction book of their choice quarterly. By year three, we added gifted (free) admission to community events where VPM was a sponsor.
It was also in those first few years we became a HubSpot Inbound Agency Partner. And that’s where I realized to compete with the big guys, our company culture had to reflect amazing benefits. Unfortunately, those remain(ed) out of reach. HubSpot has always been a content powerhouse, and even their culture video is first-class and reflects their brand voice very well.
For more on HubSpot’s culture code click here.
One of the first things you notice that is unique about HubSpot’s culture video is it shares the history of the company, although quickly, as well as some key members of the team. But then it does what most do – transitions into the tangible benefits like an on-site gym, vacation policy, unlimited eBooks, and more. There isn’t really any mention of how or what senior leaders do to support and foster an environment that weeds out toxic employees or leaders.
Tanya Hall‘s article in Inc., actually straddles the line between culture defined by the benefits and culture defined by the leadership example set by the C-suite. She has a handful of tips that rising executives would be wise to read and pay attention to. You can click on the image below to read the full article.
Finally, in my own experience, company culture is absolutely a delicate balance of both benefits and the environment. You certainly need the benefits package and other work-perks to attract top talent, but it has to be bolstered by a well trained and highly skilled leadership team that sets the tone and maintains an environment where top performers are rewarded, and negative employees aren’t.
I’m interested in your thoughts, either in a comment here on the blog or a social media post that may have led you here. And, as always, if we aren’t connected and you’d be open to a new LinkedIn connection, please just tap my nose in the image below (NOTE: you can actually tap anywhere on the image)!
NOTE: Featured image photo by The Lazy Artist Gallery from Pexels