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Wrapping your head around company culture can be tricky. It’s an elusive, slippery topic. At first blush, it seems pretty easy to define… but the more you try to explain it, the more shapeless it becomes.
And because it’s hard to define (and quantify), it’s easy to ignore or neglect. But you shouldn’t.
“Your company culture influences your teamwork, productivity, efficiency, and turnover rates,” said Laurie Bennett, company culture coach and co-founder of Within People (a consulting company that helps leaders find their purpose and grow the company they love).
If you haven’t yet got a handle on company culture, or you’re looking for concrete company culture examples, this article is for you.
Table of contents
What is company culture?
What is not company culture?
What defines company culture?
Why is company culture so important?
What does company culture impact?
How do you know what your company culture is, and how do you find it?
5 company culture examples
- BambooHR
- Arc’teryx
- Culture Amp
- TechnologyAdvice
- Clio
We recommend reading top to bottom, but feel free to jump to a specific sub-topic if you’re primarily interested in that piece.
With that, let’s get started.
What is company culture?
A straightforward and simple way to think about company culture, is that it’s “the way we do things around here.”
When chatting with Laurie, he defined culture as “the beliefs and behaviours that define who we are, why we’re here, and how we do what we do.”
Company cultures work in much the same way as cultures around the world; defined by the rituals, traditions, and ways of seeing the world that are shared by, and unique to, a group of people.
And like any culture, they survive or die according to how actively we live them.
That may sound a bit nebulous. So, let’s look at a tangible example. Let’s compare the culture of two imaginary software companies: Skip and Hangar (software companies have funny names).
Skip has a culture of innovation.
Things move quickly at their company and the office is fizzing with employees collaborating in creative sprints. They release updates to their product every week. There are frequently bugs in this software but that’s ok, it’s how they learn and move forward. They go back and fix the bugs just as quickly, and make fast progress because of this.
Hangar has a culture of crafsmanship.
The company is more deliberate in its work and everything moves a little slower. They design by hand, and each bespoke release bears a personal touch for the discerning client. They release updates every four weeks, but the updates are near-perfect. Beautiful and bug-free.
This is just one simple example of company culture differences, but it provides some clarity into what culture is and how it impacts business.
Neither of these cultures is stronger or weaker, or better or worse, than the other. It just affects the way in which work gets done and the type of work that’s valued. Which, in turn, will attract and retain different types of employees and customers.
What is not company culture?
Before we get too much deeper, there are a couple of myths to bust.
Company culture is often confused with things that look like culture, but aren’t. Fun things you do and free things you give people to make them happy.
Those are nice, but they’re aren’t your culture unless they’re rooted in the authentic truth of why your company exists and what it stands for.
They’re, by definition, perks. The cherry on top of the ice-cream sundae. And if your cultural ice-cream is awful, no amount of cherries is going make up for it in the long run.
Here are some things that Laurie said to watch out for:
- “Foosball tables, beanbags, and free breakfasts”. This is often seen in companies that want to make their office look like Google's, in the hope that their bottom line will look the same too. Unless you're also investing in empowering your people to be creative—like Google’s famous 20% thinking time—all you’re working on is interior design.
- Keep an eye out for “the things that make it nice to be here, but aren’t connected to what we do.” Seeing things we do for our ‘culture’ as very separate from ‘things we do for our work’—like going for drinks together every Friday, but making little effort to work together in the day—is a band-aid on a broken leg.
- “Words written on walls or in brand books that aren’t actually lived every day.” Famously, Enron’s values of Integrity, Communication, Respect, Excellence were carved in marble above their front door, but clearly weren’t etched into the behaviours of its leader. In the end, your culture is what you do, not what you say you do.
What defines company culture?
According to Laurie, company cultures are built on a blueprint of purpose and values. These provide the enduring reference from which company cultures are defined and lived.
How so?
Purpose provides a North Star for a company, giving meaning and direction to what it does.
Apple’s purpose is to empower the individual to think differently, and it’s fuelled decades of creativity and innovation that have changed the way we work, listen to music, and communicate.
As a set, values provide a brief for how to behave (and how not to behave), setting an expectation for the kind of people a company wants to attract, and how they’ll work together to be successful.
Zappos is known for its outstanding customer service, where staff can be themselves, go off-script, and spend as long as it takes on the phone to solve a client’s problem.
Their 10 core values enable them to attract people who make the right connection and imbue their customer support conversations with the right feeling. They don’t need a stilted conversation tree or automated jargon.
Why is company culture so important?
Now we understand what company culture is (and is not), let’s dig into why it’s so important. The detailed list of reasons is long, but Laurie highlighted four key points that sum it up nicely:
- Makes a company a team. Your culture knits together the different people at your company and keeps them aligned. When your culture is clear, different perspectives and viewpoints can all gather behind it with common purpose. Your culture sets consistent expectations for how people behave and work together.
"If your company culture is unclear, it breeds fear and mistrust instead of safety and cohesion."
Laurie Bennet
- Guides decision-making. A declared and authentic company culture provides long term direction and a framework for making decisions that’s constant in an ever-shifting environment. Laurie said: “It’s a critical creative constraint for innovation and growth.” This helps innovation flourish and prevents wandering off down the garden path.
- Attracts and keeps talent. If your culture provides meaning, then you have the best chance of attracting people who believe in what you stand for and want to give their all. If your culture is clear and authentic, you’ll attract and keep the people who are best suited to it and lose those who aren’t.
- Increases customer loyalty. Your culture underpins a relationship with customers who don’t just buy what you do, but buy into it. And provided you live that culture consistently, they’ll try to find a way to stick with a company they believe in.
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What does company culture impact?
Try not to think of company culture as an isolated thing; an ongoing project that lives in one corner of your business.
Because, it doesn’t exist in isolation. Company culture flows between everything in your business, impacting everything. No department, team, or person is left untouched.
To give you a better idea, here’s a clear list of things that company culture impacts:
- Talent attraction and retention. People want to do work that has meaning for them and be in a place they belong.
- Employee wellbeing and performance. People who feel safe and able to be themselves are happier and can perform better.
- Customer experience. How you treat your people impacts how they treat their customers.
- Strategy and decision-making. Culture helps you know why and how you want grow.
- Innovation. Purpose and values provide a ‘creative brief’ for how to adapt a product or service.
- Differentiation. Culture helps you stand out by being the best version of yourself, not by finding a ‘space to own’ that’s different from the rest.
How do you know what your company culture is, and how do you find it?
Most companies don’t look to ‘find’ their culture at the start. It feels kind of obvious (we all know why we’re doing this) and a little unnecessary (we’re all sat around this one table).
Usually it comes a little later…
- When there are too many people to sit around that table, or in that office even.
- When the unifying reason for starting the company has faded.
- When the accepted ways of working have been outgrown or overrun by processes and policies, introduced quickly to keep all those people on the straight and narrow.
The job of culture-finding is an exercise in distillation. It’s about understanding what’s true about a company and refining that into a clear framework that you can build belief in.
The task usually belongs to a founder, or a leadership team. Sometimes it’s delegated to HR, but in the end, it tends to involve people throughout the company.
Here are a few of Laurie’s tips for (re)discovering company culture:
- Look around. The funny thing about company culture is that every company has one. Look around. Why are people here? How are they working together? How does it feel? Your culture is there whether you like it or not. It’s just that some companies choose to define and nurture it with care and intention. And others don’t.
- Look to the leaders. While everyone in an organization affects the culture, the leaders have the biggest influence. Leadership is fundamentally about embodying and upholding what a company values. So, if leaders model the the culture, it will thrive. If they don’t, it will lose credibility and it won’t survive.
- Look inside, not outside. Your culture is based on who you are as a company, not who others aren’t. Don’t focus on being unique, focus on being authentic. When are you truly at your best? Trying to be different makes you neurotic. Being authentic makes you trustworthy. In the end nothing is more unique than true authenticity.
Oscar Wilde
- Look for clarity, belief, and confidence. Defining your purpose and values will give you clarity around what your culture is based on. But, to turn a framework into a culture you need everyone to believe it. It needs to be the story you tell yourselves every day. And you need to build the confidence to live it. Really live it; lead by it and shape your processes, policies, and products around it.
- Look out for pushback. The road to defining and living your culture can be a bumpy one. Laurie said: “It asks people to look deep inside, to be open and vulnerable. Making decisions based on your values can sometimes be tough. It might reveal to some that they aren’t in the right job.”
5 company culture examples
That’s all we have to say about the mechanics of company culture (for now). Now it’s time to look at some inspiring real-life company cultures in action: what makes up their culture, how they nurture it, and why this is important to them.
1. BambooHR
Leading HR software company, BambooHR, was founded on the idea that if you create a great place to work, great work will take place.
“Culture is a huge focus for the entire company,” shared Tori Fica, HR Insights Specialist at BambooHR. “We define our culture through our seven company values, but they aren't merely inspirational posters on the wall.
“They influence how every employee behaves, day in and day out.”
Tori went on tell us about how BambooHR keep their culture alive and active within the company:
“Our executives and managers choose a value to focus on each month. They select an activity or challenge for employees across the entire company to participate in as a way to help us practice what we preach.
“For example, during the month that we focused on Be Open [one of the seven values], we were all asked to seek out feedback from a few coworkers to improve our communication skills.”
Key takeaway: Live your culture by choosing a value to focus on each month and pairing it with an associated exercise.
2. Arc’teryx
World-renowned design and manufacturing company, Arc’teryx has a company culture that’s as purposeful as their product. Geoff Watts, Senior Manager, People & Culture, said:
“We're very clear on who we are and what we stand for. We know that Arc’teryx is most successful when our people are willing and able to take a stand for operating a certain way.”
There’s an emphasis on meticulous craftsmanship at Arc’teryx; an understanding that what they create has to be equally impressive for those inside and outside the company.
“Our culture is rooted in our 28 year history of making the best possible product that we’re both proud of, and want to use ourselves in our own adventures.
“We seek out people that share our values, and they in turn are the ones that keep our culture alive.”
Key takeaway: The values inside your business should mirror those projected outside your business. This helps to keep your people, product, and company on track.
3. Culture Amp
As their name would suggest, Culture Amp places a high-level of importance on company culture. I asked David Ostberg, Director of Culture Enablement, at Culture Amp, about how they live their culture each day. Here’s what he said:
“We have four key company values, which we think of as road signs to help guide us. We infuse these throughout the employee lifecycle—starting with a values induction and what we call our ‘Book of Signs.’
“Our Book of Signs is both a thing (currently a slide deck) and a process. The goal of this process is to help new hires better understand the meaning, relevance, and mutuality of our values.”
After the onboarding stage, Culture Amp continues to support its values through a peer-to-peer recognition program.
“We have a quarterly program called Amplify Our Values. Any employee can nominate someone for consistently demonstrating our values through their behavior.”
These are shared internally in a company-wide Slack channel, so all employees can view them. They’re then assessed by a group of Campers, and the winner (and nominator) are gifted a prize.
Key takeaway: Ensure that your company values are lived day-to-day by incorporating them into your people practices, like onboarding and recognition.
4. TechnologyAdvice
“Company culture isn't just a checkbox that once met can be forgotten about. It's something that is cultured and changes,” shared Karri Bishop, Marketing Communications Manager at TechnologyAdvice.
Within their company, hiring for cultural fit is always top of mind:
“Finding a person that fits culturally is just as important as finding someone who has the skill sets needed,” said Karri. “Our HR team does a great job of finding people who are a good match for the team and for our overall culture.”
Key takeaway: Don’t just hire someone for how well they can do their job, consider their compatability with your company's values and culture.
5. Clio
Clio, the leader in legal practice management software, has a mission to transform the practice of law—for good. To achieve this goal, the company has seven core values that were created with employee input. Sasha Perrin, their Corporate Communications Manager, told us:
“We have seven values that prioritize goals and guide execution on projects. They were created with contributions from employees at all levels. By creating our company values together, we all have a greater investment in owning and upholding them.
These values create alignment and help us all work together, ultimately aiding in employee satisfaction.”
Clio is also a big believer in autonomy. Employees are encouraged to see themselves as a leader and look for ways they can personally impact the business.
Key takeaway: When establishing your core values, seek input from people throughout your company.
Conclusion
Company culture impacts everything from employee retention to your bottom-line. Taking the time to nurture it with integrity will have positive returns. Remember to look within your company to discover and establish your true values. Then live and nurture them each day to keep everyone in your company marching to the beat of the same drum.
Want to live your company culture every day?
