The importance of a strong culture and values
How having a well-structured base can help your company stand out during talent acquisition, onboarding, and retention
Investopedia defines corporate culture as:
The beliefs and behaviors that determine how a company’s employees and management interact and handle outside business transactions. Often, corporate culture is implied, not expressly defined, and develops organically over time from the cumulative traits of the people the company hires. A company’s culture will be reflected in its dress code, business hours, office setup, employee benefits, turnover, hiring decisions, treatment of clients, client satisfaction, and every other aspect of operations.
It sure sounds like a big deal, right? That’s because it is. As a professional I’ve had several different experiences when it comes to culture: I worked at family companies and big, multinational corporations before I got to Pipefy and, considering I’ve been here since the very beginning, I’ve actually witnessed the culture being built first-hand (but that’s a story for another article).
Defining your internal and external identity
What I want to talk about today is that your company culture matters not only for your employees but also to the type of people you’re interested in bringing on board as well.
Your culture also determines what your clients will expect from you before going into business with you (everyone Googles everyone these days) and that can be the “make or break” factor when deciding if you are the type of company they could get along with.
Successful companies, whether they’re huge corporate empires or 5 people startups, are a lot more than great products and profit margins, a strong culture is also essential.
Your culture has to be more about just pretty (but empty) words. It must be yours and you need to be loyal to it — that’s what I intend on talking more about in an upcoming series of articles about Pipefy culture which I hope you’ll enjoy.
One thing is for sure, though. As there’s no “one size fits all”, the same applies to your culture. Not everyone will be fully aligned with everything it states — and that’s okay, as long as that’s something you already know from the moment you start prospecting your candidates for a new position.
Bringing the right people on board
You need to make sure that your culture, values, and beliefs are in everyone’s minds even before they become part of the company. When recruiting and working with your talent acquisition team, ensure what are the hard and soft skills you’re looking for in a candidate.
Even though a specific person may have all the qualifications and seem like the ideal fit for a position you have, if somewhere down the recruitment process you identify that the culture is not a match, that may be a problem.
Your culture can be that “extra mile” that makes people choose to work for you instead of someone else. We all heard about companies with strong, defined, and well-known cultures. That’s something that can happen for your company as well, as long as you know how to do it.
From company to team since day one
We all know how important the onboarding process is (if you don’t know, I’d suggest you read “The first 90 days” by Michael Watkins. It’s targeted mostly for people in leadership positions, but it’s a great read for new employees at all levels.
Having a strong organizational culture may be just what you need to act as that gravitational force that draws people to your company. During the first new days at a company, it must be all about the culture.
If you’re focused on showing people where your company stands when it comes to expected behaviors, attitudes, and so on, you’d be way better equipped to help them see themselves as part of something bigger (first their team, then the entire company). It’s also super important in setting expectations and boundaries, which is very helpful when you’re first starting at a new job — especially if it’s at a company with a fairly hyped culture.
Keeping the right people around
Just to summarize everything we already pointed out, when people feel like they truly belong — they’re part of a community and not just numbers — they’re way more likely to stay and help you bring your retention rates up.
In the next article of this series, I’ll share an introduction about our core values at Pipefy, but I’ll give you a quick spoiler: culture and expected behaviors are just as important (if not more) when evaluating our Honey Badger’s performances.
Having a person that delivers outstanding results but is not aligned with what the Pipefy Culture is all about is not something that interests us. Of course results matter but some skills can be learned while trusting and being really part of a culture is way harder to change.
Alright, that was it for today! I hope you liked it and you’re already looking forward to diving deeper into the Honey Badger culture with us.
See you soon!
