Red and Green Flags in Your Work Environment: What does a good culture look like?

Wherever we work, we’re always looking for an environment with a “good” culture. When hiring is competitive, it’s inevitably a question candidates ask employers. And it is most certainly one of the most important dimensions Gen Z’ers evaluate when interviewing. But what does that mean? What is culture? And what does a “good” culture look like especially in a start-up where things are still so new a culture may not be fully formed?

For the purposes of this article, I’ll define a company’s culture is its attitudes, beliefs and behaviors that define how the organization operates. The focus of this article, however, will focus on two expansions of this definition.

First, like any country or group of people’s cultures, there are also a core set of norms that should be universal across companies’ cultures. So what are the common tenets for companies? Second, these organizational behaviors are ones that are inherent, not fickle. Even for a newer company like a start-up, cultural behaviors are ones that become more or less pronounced over time, not ones that vacillate between existing and not existing.The easiest litmus test to use is how an organization behaves when things are good and when things aren’t going exactly to plan. Assuming you’ve joined at an early stage and when morale is high, how can you tell which behaviors are going to sustain over time?

A different lens

Let me first correct a lens that a lot of us use when evaluating company cultures. When we talk to potential co-workers or look at new job openings, we ask ourselves whether a culture is good or bad. I think that’s the incorrect framework. It’s purely subjective, dependent on who you ask and their personal priorities.

Instead, you should ask whether a culture is strong or weak. Resilient during times of stress or under-developed and lacking a point of view. The strength of a company’s culture can be evaluated objectively by measurement. It can then be assessed for whether you fit it based on your personal priorities. You’re not comparing your priorities against another person’s but against the company’s. And not all strong cultures are a fit with you. Personally, I don’t know if I’d enjoy working at Amazon or Uber because of their culture. But I do know that those who thrive in these cultures do so because there is a fit.

The 6 things to evaluate

So if you’re already at a start-up or about to join one, what are the organizational signals you should be looking out for? Where do you spot them especially if you’re in a hybrid in-person / remote setting? Remember: this is not exhaustive but a common core of norms that you can ask about during the interview process, observe in interactions between colleagues, or just read about through company reviews. And at the sake of sharing a never-ending checklist, I’ve narrowed it down to the top 6 most important ones to consider.

1. Is the company consistently true to its mission and its values?

To start, does the company have a mission? A reason for existing beyond making the founders money? If you were to go around and ask 5 people at the company its purpose and how it’s serving customers, would they all say the same thing? A lot of start-ups these days skip this step and as the team grows, this lack of purpose often results in directionless work or lack of strategy. This stems from a group of individuals who have differing understandings of how the company should execute its day-to-day work because they don’t have a shared understanding of the company’s core tenets.

If a company does have a mission but does not re-affirm it in its day-to-day work, this is another sign of a weak culture and people will take notice. Take Nike, a company famous for its mission, as an example. “Nike’s mission is to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world. *If you have a body, you are an athlete.” If Nike announced that one year to only sell to men one year and to women another year, this flies in the face of its mission. Also note: expanding one’s definition of its mission to explicitly include more and more customers is different than applying it inconsistently.

If this type of behavior happens at the level of work tied most directly to a company’s mission, it will be apparent at work several degrees removed. As the aimless or confusing nature of the work perpetuates, the behaviors solidify and become part of the culture.

More tangibly, a company’s values can be one of the most important determinants of and indicators of culture. That may seem like a bit of a chicken-or-egg paradox but think about it. If they exist (determinants) and they’re applied consistently (creating indicators), they are reinforcing. Another example is Disney. Two values of theirs in particular, are ones we as consumers are familiar with: community and storytelling. These values are so critical to the company that you will interact with employees who are fanatical about these things if you’ve ever been to a Disney Park or watched a documentary about how a Disney movie is made.

Both mission and values must be treated like habits. They need to be stated repeatedly and exhaustively and then practiced religiously. Anything else and they won’t stick and the resulting culture will be weak.

2. In forming culture, how does the company navigate and respond to feedback?

Aside from a company’s mission and core values, its other norms are likely to crystallize over time based on a mix of what the company prefers and circumstance. Stronger cultures are likely to emerge if a company also takes into account feedback from employees and seeks to optimize the culture for them, not just its leaders.

Not all suggestions from employees may be relevant or appropriate but there must be a willingness to listen and consider feedback that is given, especially if repeated by more than one member of the team. And if that feedback isn’t incorporated, it is often important to explain why to provide a sense of that consideration along with what alternate route will be taken.

Sometimes, this can be controversial. And start-up leaders may face pressure to reverse course. But those who reinforce their cultural norms during times of duress are ones that build resilient cultures. Recent examples include companies who support reproductive freedom and provide services to employees seeking to exercise those rights and those who invest based on environmental, social and corporate governance even in the face of critics who say it doesn’t provide returns or is based on “woke” culture. While it may feel ancillary to a company’s revenue, a company who adheres to a set of moral values will stand on the right side of history.

3. Is there fairness and accountability from the CEO down to the most junior employee?

One of the easiest ways to destroy trust among co-workers is to violate one of the most basic tenets of the social contract a company has with its employees: a sense of fairness or equity. This doesn’t mean unilateral, indiscriminate policies (that is in fact, the opposite).

Is everyone held to the same standard or are some people held to higher or lower ones? Are the consequences for bad behavior the same for senior team members as well as junior employees? For tenured v. newer employees? Are the rewards and recognition given equitably? This can range from standard policies (sexual harassment, power harassement, etc.) to processes (performance reviews, pay evaluations and bonuses, etc.)

I’ve seen this happen across a few different in/out groups: men v. women, white v. BIPOC, patronages v. merit earners, C-level v. associate-level, higher performers v. lower performers. Regardless of how the haves and have nots have been separated, there are rarely reasons to create a different set of standards when it comes to holding people accountable. Too often, companies that fail to act with this basic principle in mind for the sake of growth or some other start-up objective will create unstable environments that lead to weak culture.

4. Is it quiet quitting or healthy boundaries?

There’s been a lot of debate about “quiet quitting” in recent HR literature. Some call it healthy boundaries and others are up in arms about how Gen Z’ers are setting the wrong expectations. The details of this debate aside, the concept of work-life balance is still raging and has been even more important in an extended period of work-from-home where a lot of us are mentally languishing.

But rather than evaluating specific tactics a company may employ, it’s more important to understand the company’s philosophy to approaching work-life balance instead. One of the most important philosophical pillars is flexibility. Does it matter the exact hours you’re in the office or that you go offline when you need to pick up your kids from school and get back online when they’re in bed? Does the company accommodate those patterns?

Another pillar is durability. When you’re on vacation, are you completely (or close to completely) offline or are you just in a different sunny / snowy destination constantly on your phone or laptop because no one else can fill your shoes?

Cultures that allow everyone time and space to live a life outside work, to recharge and return to work energized to keep going will be able to have long-lasting teams that transition from small start-up to scaling company.

5. Does the company encourage healthy debate?

Cultures where unilateral decisions are made without collaboration may keep employees in line for a time but I don’t find them to be particularly durable. When individuals feel bought into the process and collaboration is encouraged, work is not siloed and unhealthy competition for attention and resources are eliminated. This way of working is definitely slower, especially if more people are brought into the process, but they have more longevity because more people feel ownership over the process and thus the outcomes.

If people are in an environment where they are afraid to speak out because they fear consequences or think their opinion won’t be heard, they will not contribute to building the company in a productive manner. And this insidious and toxic environment will ultimately lead to turnover and lack of progress on any given initiative.

If you’ve joined a company that has established and reinforces its mission and values, then debate will be more on tactics than strategy in the early stages. And if there are specific rules set out for how to engage in healthy debate, the outcome should be one that is stronger for the entire company. Again, repetition of these practices fosters a strong, positive environment.

6. Does the company care about DEI, really?

For a start-up to stand out these days, it needs to build a community. And in building that community, it will engage in conversation with its members who more and more require a company to reveal its moral or political views as part of its brand. While some of these topics are complex, avoiding taking a position on them is passive and even cowardly. For US companies, we can no longer afford to be apolitical which I’ll cover in a separate post.

But one area I firmly believe is necessary for a company to build a strong culture is investing in DEI. Aside from the obvious moral arguments, developing and committing to DEI means a company is investing in transferable skills like solicitation of and collaboration with different viewpoints, holding individuals accountable for exhibiting unacceptable biases, a respect for individuals’ cultures, and evolving based on employees who want to have others who look like them as peers.

Not wanting to prioritize DEI is very likely an indicator that the company is willing to tolerate or even incent other bad behaviors.

False signals of culture and what to actually look for

A lot of articles you read may mention benefits and conflate that with strong culture. I think those are vanity metrics. While endless snacks or game rooms may be fun, these are not the same as culture. They may be related to a specific value but these perks are not culture in and of itself. And more than coincidentally, these may be one of the first things that get eliminated when a company hits a rough patch in which case it’s not going to solidify a culture.

The metrics to actually track and are the result (not reason for) of strong culture are retention, engagement and internal promotion. These are hard numbers that can tell you how well a company is at recruiting people who “fit” out of the gates, how much people who do fit enjoy their jobs and how much they want to stay to develop a career not just work at a job. The above inputs we’ve just discussed are some of the most important ways to affect these outputs of a strong culture.

What about you?

So how many of these six determinants of culture does your start-up have?

• An explicit mission and set of values that are consistently reinforced
• Thoughtful and considerate incorporation of feedback from employees
• Standards of accountability that are applied equitably
• Respect for boundaries through flexibility
• Collaboration through healthy debate
• Investment in and commitment to DEI

Rarely do start-ups have all of these but they should strive to. And not all of these can be built by the leadership alone but need the help of its employees. So what about you? Do you think that you will be a contributor or detractor to your company’s culture? Will you help to build and shape it using the principles above or break it down because you are unhappy with its current manifestation?