ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
Most companies claim that people are their most important asset, but unless employees are made to feel important, they'll never believe it.
An organization's culture is the glue that binds everyone together. It represents the norms, practices, and expectations for how everyone will function together. As such, it is the backdrop and foundation for everything else that occurs. As organizations develop a reputation for being a good or bad place to work, that will serve to perpetuate the perceptions of everyone within the organization as well as those outside it. Most organizations use “core” or “shared” values to communicate to everyone what the organization most stands for and the priorities for how they will work together.
For example, many organizations—especially in manufacturing industries—have a core value of “safety first,” that is, a clear mandate for all employees that no matter what job they are doing, how fast they are working, or how late a project may be, the must keep safety as a priority. This value can be implemented at many levels from picking up objects that are in walkways that could be tripped on, to having emergency shut-off controls for industrial equipment and the training for when and how to use those controls.
Many other values of an organization's culture impacts how employees feel about working for the organization and hence how engaged they are at work. This can range from work-life balance priorities to how socially responsible the organization is both internally (e.g., conserving the environment by “being green”) as well as externally (e.g., how they participate in and support the communities where they are based).
This chapter will share many other examples of how companies bring their organizational culture to life as active reminders to staff.
I don't think it's possible to make a great quality product without having a great quality work environment. So it's linked—quality product, quality customer service, quality workplace, and quality of life for your employees.
—YVON CHOUINARD, CEO, PATAGONIA
Bren Anne Public Relations and Marketing in Ontario, Canada, has five staff members who work remotely most of the time. Every morning, a positive message and a reminder of how important each and every team member is posted on Face-book and or via an email blast. Examples used include:
- “Teamwork divides the tasks and multiples the success.”
- “Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.”
- “That moment when you and a teammate know exactly what you're doing, without saying a word.”
“It works very well for us, and every morning we hear from our team that they look for that positive reinforcement and message of positivity to get the day going,” says Bren Anne.
Midwest Retail Services, headquartered near Columbus, Ohio, is a B2B company that sells retail store shelving and displays to stores in every category from grocery to pet supply to party stores to pharmacies. They employ about fifteen people across three or four states and have outside sales reps stationed in several other states. Each month the owner, Matt Ray, features a new quote at the entrance to the building. The quote is chosen by a different employee at the start of each month and shared with the team during their daily stand-up meeting. The employee reads their chosen quote, explains why they selected the quote, and how they feel it applies to them personally and the company in general. The quote is framed at the entrance to the offices where all visitors can see it, as well as every employee entering and exiting the building during the workday. Quotes are shared in the company's social media account with a shout-out naming the team member who chose the quote. At the end of the month, they get to keep the printed quote, and a new employee is selected to take a turn the next month.
Each day, employees at Cincinnati Marriott Northeast hotel in Mason, Ohio, focus on one of the Marriott Twenty Basics—a corporation-wide set of values that all employees live by—rotating them throughout the year. The Twenty Basics include such things as “I do more” and “I stay flexible.” In addition to the Twenty Basics, Cincinnati Marriott Northeast employees carry pledge cards that provide them with an addition set of values. In one example—the Twenty-Ten Oath—employees are encouraged to smile and make eye contact when they are within twenty feet of a guest, and then greet the guest when they are within ten feet.
Online real estate valuation service Zillow, based in Seattle, Washington, created a Culture Committee that has successfully lobbied for a variety of employee perks, including foosball, ping pong, and air hockey tables; and free all-you-can-drink soda, juice, and milk.
By banning Friday meetings throughout the organization, management at San Diego, California's Scripps Health believes that employees can finish their work for the week—and then prepare for the coming week—before they leave for the weekend. Employees return to work on Mondays refreshed and recharged.
Ironically, the projects that begin small and with cultural goals often generate greater proportional financial returns than those with economic goals.
—ROSABETH MOSS KANTER, WHEN GIANTS LEARN TO DANCE
Consultants who work an average of more than fifty-five hours per week for five weeks in a row at Boston Consulting Group are placed on a Red Zone report. This report helps company managers, officers, and project leaders identify employees who may be subject to burnout, and appropriate action can be taken.
Dr. Mark L. Johnson is a university professor in the College of Technology at Pittsburg State University located in Pittsburg, Kansas, within the Department of Technology and Workforce Learning. His division within the department offers online degrees in workforce development and a master's degree in human resource development. He reports:
We are small with just four faculty members in our division, but last year we decided that we wanted to up our game and do what we do better.
The four faculty in the division all bought and read Magnetic Service by Chip and Bilijack Bell. It's a great book about rethinking how we treat each other and our customers. We immediately began to implement ideas from the text. Instead of the department sending out a single form letter out to a prospective student interested in the program, all four of the faculty write a note of thanks for their interest to each applicant. When students come for a visit, they get to meet each of the faculty personally. We celebrate each other as colleagues more, and every week, we ask ourselves if we are providing magnetic service.
From a personal perspective, the workplace is much more positive, and the response rate of interested students is yielding more applicants. Current students in the program have noticed the positive change and have even commented on the significance of how faculty are working with students.
Positive ideas from outside an organization are such a great help. As I tell my students, “We only know what we know until we learn something else.” That something else is what makes the ordinary extraordinary!
Advanced Patient Advocacy (APA) in Richmond, Virginia, is proud of its focus on The APA Way, which represents “compassion for people and passion for results.” The company helps drive this focus on a daily basis by recognizing and rewarding employees for demonstrating the organization's culture and values.
Employees self-report on a form designed to capture important details. “The customer success team shares this information with our clients to demonstrate the value APA and the staff provide them every day,” says Amy Wight, director of employee success. At the end of each month, one submission is chosen that best demonstrates The APA Way, and that employee receives a $10 Starbucks gift card. This person is also recognized on the company intranet page and in the bimonthly e-newsletter. At the end of the year, the names of everyone who submitted a form are entered into a raffle for a $50 Visa gift card.
The organizational culture is also reinforced through group activities at monthly meetings. “Activities range from a trivia challenge to understand the remaining uninsured population, to a creative exercise that allows teams to design their own ‘coat of arms’ to represent each APA value,” adds Wight. “A guide for each activity is shared with all managers in the Managers' Toolbox on the company intranet page as a tool to use with their teams.”
“Animals make the environment less stressy,” says Alan Beck, director of the Center of the Animal-Human Bond at Purdue University. “When you talk to another person, your blood pressure goes up. When you talk to animals, it goes down.” Many companies in the Maryland area use Squeals on Wheels, a traveling petting zoo based in Potomac to help employees de-stress. Discovery Communications hosts an animal petting party. Aronson accounting firm in Rockville also hires Squeals on Wheels during crunch time. Employees at Dataprise in Rockville report they feel calmer after spending time with puppies. One employee says, “I juggle multiple tasks, so it's nice to juggle multiple puppies.”
Denmark-based LEGO, the famous toy manufacturer, keeps an ongoing focus on wonder and imaginative play, which thoroughly defines the company's culture. The CEO believes that values at work should match the values the company builds into its products. Instead of having traditional office structures and furnishings, they have created a physical work environment that is more conducive to play. During product testing and tours, children often visit and play with the work teams. Lego wants an environment that encourages freethinking versus having a stodgy, run-of-the-mill worksite. Thus, you won't find an employee manual anywhere on campus.
Joe Campagna, owner of My Virtual HR Director, an HR consulting firm based in Parlin, New Jersey, installed BenefitHub—a platform that gives people access to an employee discount marketplace—into three of his client companies. The platform was referred by David Flook of AdminiSMART, Eatontown, New Jersey, a national clearinghouse for HR consultants and vendors. “It's used by five of ten largest employers in the United States,” says Flook. Campagna's firm put BenefitHub discount portals in a 120-employee religious organization, a thirty-employee collection firm, and a seventy-employee manufacturing company. Reports showed great results. “After six months, the average participation rate was 72 percent,” says Campagna, “and 93 percent of the employees using the system returned, with 34 percent returning every month. Management loved the idea of helping their employees save money and having a great perk to set them apart from their competition.”
People want to be challenged. They want to look forward to a challenge. Money isn't everything. I want to create a culture where people look forward to coming to work in the morning and feel good at night when they leave.
—BOB CANTWELL, PRESIDENT, HADADY CORPORATION
CASE STUDY: GROUNDING CULTURE AND MISSION DURING ONBOARDING
“Our new employee onboarding process is designed to engage our employees in the culture and the mission of KHC from the first day,” says Dr. Amy Smith, deputy executive director for business services at the Kentucky Housing Corporation in Frankfort, Kentucky. “We use the process to explain our corporate strategy and how each employee supports the mission. It is branded—‘KHC Unite: Where Uniting Families with Homes Begins with You.’” The process for onboarding follows:
- A supervisor hires the employee and sets a start date, then contacts the employee via e-mail or phone one or two times prior to their start. This can include sharing job information, expectations, reading materials, and so on.
- Employee services mails a welcome packet with important paperwork and the Employee Handbook saved to an external drive, all packaged in a KHC leather padfolio.
- The technology services, business logistics, and employee services departments work together with the hiring supervisor to provide the needed office and desk setup, as well as the appropriate computer setup (desktop, laptop, Surface) for the employee's work (full-time onsite, part-time onsite, or remote).
- Employee services provides a “Welcome” card to the supervisor for all coworkers in the work area/department to sign prior to the first day of work. The card is presented along with onboarding gifts, a color-matched green bag that includes the following KHC logo items: coffee mug, tumbler, mouse pad, lined writing pad, lapel pin, and ink pen. These items and a copy of KHC's Strategic Direction are placed on the new employee's desk prior to arrival.
- Employee services also places a “Welcome” sign with the new employee's name on it on the door of the office or cube wall to alert current employees that the new hire should be welcomed into the corporation.
- The supervisor creates and shares a thirty-sixty-ninety-day plan with the new hire. One of the most significant parts of this process is that the supervisor must commit to spending time on a regular basis, usually weekly or biweekly, reviewing that employee's work and progress in taking on tasks, adapting to the culture, and understanding KHC.
- Finally, on the new hire's first day, they participate in a series of meetings with the employee services staff to get an overview of KHC as well as work on their new-hire paperwork. They also meet with technology services to set up their technology, business logistics to learn the phone and badge/security system, communications and marketing to understand how we communicate through staff the mission and products of KHC, and legal/internal audit to understand policies that impact employees (such as the “clean desk” policy, information security policies, and so on). The area/department coordinates a welcome lunch on the new hire's first day, and supervisors assign a mentor or a guide to provide assistance to the new hire for the first ninety days and beyond.
Many companies have added a new role in the C-suite: the chief cultural officer, who is tasked with overseeing the companies' HR, recruiting, and education teams. The CCO helps keep company traditions and best practices thriving. One such company is email-marketing firm MailChimp, based in Atlanta, Georgia.
Software firm Full Contact, based in Denver, offers employees $7,500 to take what they call a “Paid, Paid” vacation. They can go anywhere they like, but they have to actually go somewhere. The rationale is that when people are truly on vacation, they free their minds of work issues for the length of the vacation. When they return to work, they are refreshed and recommitted to help achieve company goals.
Miami-based technology company Ultimate Software pays the entire amount of their employees' medical insurance premiums. They do the same for their dependents as well. The company also provides complimentary boot-camp classes.
Family owned In-N-Out Burger is very popular with hamburger aficionados. Employees of this California-based restaurant chain love the company as well, and not just because they get free food every day. Competitive salaries, a 401(k) plan, flexible schedules, paid vacations, and special events are just a few reasons why employees stay engaged.
To achieve production goals at apparel and promotional-gear printer CustomInk, based in Fairfax, Virginia, the company offers its employees many worksite amenities, including a comfortable dining hall and lounge, free meals and snacks, and a very casual dress code. Beth Clark, team services manager in Reno, Nevada, says, “When you print T-shirts, you should be able to wear them when you work here.” All of the perks are meant to provide some of balance with employees' demanding workloads. It appears to be working. Customlnk is considered one the best-rated businesses. It has appeared on Forbes 100 Best Places to Work list for two consecutive years.
“We work very hard, and we expect a lot of our employees in terms of commitment to and longevity in the company,” says Laura Peterson, director of learning and development in Reno. Peterson knows the company has the right culture. She is very proud that of the sixty production artists she hired, fifty continue to work for the company ten years later.
Personal development is an important component in the work culture at Round Table Companies, a storytelling firm based in Jacksonville, Florida. “We are planning on bringing our leadership team of [twelve] to the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland three times this year for intense personal development,” says Corey Blake, CEO and founder. They also address identity, marital, and parenting issues. “Supporting our staff in their lives impacts their work, while deepening loyalty to the company and one other,” adds Blake.
Every four to six weeks, Betabrand, a retail clothing company and crowdfunding platform based in San Francisco, California, gives its corporate frequent flyer miles to a staff person to use on free international travel.
Our clients are the reason for our existence as a company, but to serve our clients best, we have to put our people first. People are a company's one true competitive measure.
—HAL ROSENBLUTH, FORMER CEO, ROSENBLUTH INTERNATIONAL
In over thirty states in the United States, the cost of childcare exceeds the cost of college tuition and exceeds the cost of rent in some other states. This fact is not lost on some employers. Three, in particular, who see this as an opportunity to retain parents at work come to mind.
- SAS, an analytics software company based in Cary, North Carolina, pays for onsite daycare and preschool for the children of its employees. “Knowing your children are receiving the best possible care while you're at work is a huge relief,” says SAS spokesperson Shannon Heath. “Happy employees create happy customers. And more loyal employees translates to lower employee turnover: We average around 3 percent to 5 percent versus the industry average of 18 percent.”
- Fifth Third Bank, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, offers moms on the career track a free maternity concierge service.
- Since IBM focused on the needs of working mothers in 2015, more companies are hiring breast milk shipping services, such as Milk Stork, for traveling, breastfeeding moms. Boston Scientific employees use Milk Stork's service, which costs the firm on average just under $140 per day.
Prezi, the presentation-software company located in San Francisco, California, and Budapest, Hungary, recognizes the value introverts bring to an organization. The CEO is an introvert and understands that some introverts need to be alone so they can focus and get their work done. The company encourages introverts to both work independently, and as fully participative teammates. Their facilities include quiet rooms, meditation rooms, and small areas to provide “brain space.”
Instead of giving a traditionally styled employee handbook to new hires, software engineering firm Metal Toad gives them a leather-bound journal called “Toad Lore.” They have found that traditional handbooks are ineffective when it comes to communicating the company's culture. Toad Lore is different: The journal contains all the cultural metaphors and dialect that turn employees into “toads.” Vice president of operations Tim Winner follows six guidelines to create an artifact, totem, handbook, or journal:
- Manage with philosophies, not policies.
- Find a large, passionate group to support the idea.
- Make it creative and bold.
- Don't overthink it.
- Add a quote from a recently onboarded employee.
- Roll it out with fanfare.
“Your culture matters,” writes Winner. “The way you communicate your culture matters even more.”
Financial services firm Citigroup has three core values, known as the company's Shared Responsibilities, that guide employee behavior with colleagues, clients, and the firm. The three core values include: providing clients with superior products and services, as well as acting with the highest level of integrity; providing all Citigroup employees with opportunities to realize their full potential, as well as respect each of the organization's global employees while championing diversity; and to protect the company franchise and safeguard Citigroup's long-term interests, culture, history, and legacy.
Furniture manufacturer Herman Miller of Zeeland, Michigan, has a core value of acknowledging the strengths and differences of every employee. On the company grounds—near a small pond—stands a statue called The Water Carrier, which uses beams of light to project the names of Herman Miller employees with twenty or more years of service. The statue—and the Water Carrier Award, which is given to employees with twenty years of service at a special annual ceremony—symbolizes the Native American belief that every job is important to the group's survival, regardless of title or position in the hierarchy.
The Berry Company, a Yellow Pages manufacturer located in Dayton, Ohio, introduced the upside-down pyramid as its business model. Instead of putting the CEO and senior leadership team at the top point of the pyramid, the company flipped the pyramid and put the customers at the top, followed by all company staff that interacted with customers. These two groups were made the top focus of the company. At the very bottom of the inverted pyramid was the CEO, whose job it was to support the company's sales force and other employees.
Good treatment of workers results in similar treatment of customers.
—TODD ENGLANDER, INCENTIVE MAGAZINE
Outdoor clothing manufacturer Patagonia encourages employees to live the company's values. Patagonia's Environmental Internship Program encourages employees to work for the environmental nonprofit organizations of their choice for up to two months—while receiving their full pay and benefits from Patagonia. Employees can choose to do their environmental internships in the form of a sabbatical—taking time off from their regular jobs for the entire two months—or just a couple of days a week over the course of an entire year.
Automobile manufacturer Ferrari S.p.A. of Maranello, Italy, has twelve core values, which correspond to the twelve cylinder in the company's top-of-the-line race car engines. The values include:
- Tradition and innovation.
- Individual and team.
- Passion and sports spirit.
- Territoriality and internationality.
- Ethics and profit.
- Excellence and speed.
The company motto at New York–based global real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield is “Have fun,” so at the firm's Portugal office, employees are invited to jump out of an airplane whenever they want. Doing so includes a two-day training course in parachuting, and then a day off for the jump itself. Other fun activities in keeping with the firm's motto include Department Days Out, during which groups of employees have taken field trips to a spa, gone on a tour in a Jeep, and learned how to scuba dive.
Balancing Professionals—a staffing firm in Cary, North Carolina—gives employees time off to do volunteer work in their community. According to firm partner Maryanne Perrin, “This allows employees to step away from work in order to help somewhere in the community.”
Giving back to the community is a key element in the work culture of Premier Nutrition Corporation, based in Emeryville, California. “One of my favorite things about PNC is our employees' passion and efforts to bring good energy to the world,” says Darcy Horn Davenport, president of PNC. “It goes beyond the four walls of the PNC office.” Despite their heavy workload, employees contribute back in the community semi-annually. The company offers several opportunities to contribute to its community. For example, the whole company raised $6,000 for wildfire relief as a result of a bike-riding event through California's wineries. PNC is now launching a more robust philanthropy program, which will double the number of philanthropic partners. PNC employees will vote to select two charitable organizations to receive the funds.
At Herman Miller, the furniture manufacturer based in Zeeland, Michigan, employees get eight paid hours annually to volunteer in their communities. One year, the company set a goal of donating a total of 10,000 hours of employee service. Volunteer activities vary from building homes with Habitat for Humanity to raising funds for cancer patients.
The boardroom at Patagonia is used to store surfboards belonging to employees who use them while taking breaks during the course of their workday.
Big Four accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers distributed a booklet to employees entitled “Rest and Relaxation: The Value of Time Off.” An excerpt from the booklet: “Try not to call the office to discuss business matters or check voicemail or email. You are either on vacation or you're at work; you shouldn't try to be in two places at one time.”
At Southington, Connecticut's Yarde Metals, the company's 665 employees can work out at an on-site gym, keep their dogs in the company kennel, or snooze in the nap room. Says founder and former president and CEO Craig Yarde, “The real issue is how we treat people. That's what defines us and that's what I hope we are known for.”
Business Environment, a business services provider based in London, England, offers a variety of incentives and perks to employees to ensure they feel appreciated by their managers and are motivated to give their best every day. Some of these incentives and perks include tours of London, bowling, group meals, and a family fun day. As a result, 80 percent of Business Environment employees report feeling fully involved at work: 86 percent report that workmates care for one another, and 81 percent are excited about the future.
Google is committed to providing the complete employee package. In addition to offering great compensation—one of the best in the United States—the package includes catered meals, dry cleaning, massages, meals, and an exceptional parental leave policy. Their people analytics team analyzes employee happiness today versus how it might be in the future. They use the results of their analysis to continuously provide evolving programs that consistently match the needs and desires of their workforce.
The purveyor of web-based products and services in Mountain View, California, has a full-time concierge in its corporate headquarters to help employees take care of day-to-day tasks that distract them from their jobs. All levels of employees have access to the concierge services, which include making restaurant reservations, ordering flowers, and recommending places to dine. This perk is in addition to Wednesday and Thursday chair massages, free on-site washers and dryers, a $500 voucher for takeout food after the birth of a child, an annual all-expenses-paid ski trip, seventeen restaurants with free food, and a roving teacart.
ZAAZ, a website consultant in Seattle, Washington, gives employees free public transportation and health club memberships. It also provides random acts of kindness—items such as lottery tickets and sweets.
AFLAC Insurance Company revamped its recognition program to reinforce the company's strong sense of family, a vital part of its culture. Employee Appreciation Week is the main thrust of the program. At the beginning of the week, AFLAC invites all 4,000 employees to watch free, family-oriented films in a rented multiscreen theater. As the week commences, free breakfasts are provided, as well as raffles for prizes. Employees have the choice of bringing their families to either an amusement park, a petting zoo, or a nature facility. At week's end, employees get a gift they can share with their families.
Best Buy Company, the electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota, invited part-time salesman Jake Rockwell to sing a rap song to an audience of 2,000 store managers and executives from district, regional, and corporate headquarters. Not only did Jake have the time of his life—and an experience he will never forget—but he also received a standing ovation for his performance.
Companies such as Visa, SAP, Salesforce, GE Appliances, NVIDIA, Tribune Media, Slack, Instacart, and OpenTable offer their employees “at-home, physician-ordered” genetic tests to screen for mutations linked to serious diseases and illnesses.
35 percent of US workers said they'd forgo a substantial pay raise in exchange for seeing their direct supervisor ftred.
—THE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT GROUP
Clothing retailer Giordano International, located in Hong Kong, China, encourages employees to organize morale-boosting activities themselves, with the company providing the necessary financial and other resources to support them. Says Giordano's human resources director Ngan Lei-tjen, “We have learned from experience that if we take the lead in such initiatives, our staff will lose their drive as soon as we stop doing so.”
At Piscines Ideales, the swimming pool designer, builder, and maintenance company based in Pefki, Greece, employees who get married receive a month's salary as a bonus, and employees who have a child receive a bonus and paid time away from work. Children of employees starting a course of studies at university receive a personal computer from the company, and employees are eligible to receive no- or low-interest loans, which they can use for any reason, including buying a home. Employees also receive a substantial discount if they have the company build them a spa or pool.
Human beings need to be recognized and rewarded for special efforts. You don't even have to give them much. What they want is tangible proof that you really care about the job they do. The reward is really just a symbol of that.
—TOM CASH, FORMER SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, AMERICAN EXPRESS
REI, the outdoor gear company, actively encourages employees to spend time outside with Yay Days—paid time off to spend outside—sizable worker discounts on its gear (30 percent), adventure trips (50 percent), and its Opt Outside campaign that closes all 151 stores on Black Friday and pays employees to pass the day in nature.
Quicken Loans gives free tickets to concerts and sporting events at Ticket Window Thursday. Every week, the CEO announces the winners over the public-address system.
SAS offers the same benefits plan to landscapers, food service workers, housekeepers, and other support staff as they do to the professional staff. As a result, the attrition rate of service employees is far less than normal.
RevZilla, based in Philadelphia, shows appreciation in a number of ways, including a week-long ZillaPalooza with games, ice cream trucks, and catered meals during meal breaks.
Everyone works smarter when there's something in it for them.
—MICHAEL LEBOEUF, AUTHOR, THE GREATEST MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLE IN THE WORLD
In 2015, Levi Strauss required its supply-chain partners to provide their own employees with wellness resources. One example is the Nazareno plant in Mexico, where management has upgraded the factor campus with a soccer field, an ATM, and better fans for worker comfort.
Dutch sciences giant DSM reinvented itself to tackle global problems like hunger and climate change. The result is an $8.8 billion company whose stock is near an all-time high. “Purpose motivates employees better than profit,” says CEO Feike Sijbesma. “They are proud if they can say ‘Our company is making the world cleaner, the food healthier.’”
According to public statements from Zappos:
We know there's no way we could've achieved our success as a company without our vendors' commitment and passion, so every year we like to show a little gratitude. We take over a venue such as the Hard Rock Hotel pool or Rain Nightclub at the Palms and invite all of our vendors. Between our vendors and the Zappos team, we have over three thousand people on hand. The benefits we've reaped from concentrating on building relationships with our vendors are endless. They help us plan our businesses and make sure we have enough of the right product at the right time. When inventory's scarce, they help procure inventory on hot-selling items.
CEO Fred Holzberger of Aveda Fredric's Institutes gave 400 of his associates a day off for the following year to work for a day at a charity of their choice. There was one caveat: Upon returning to AVI, they must share their charity-work experience with him. The results were dramatic. After serving others, people changed their perspectives; their outlooks improved, and they came to work more energized.
West Marine, a leading North American boating supply retailer in Watsonville, California, hires boaters to work in its stores. Customers like interacting with employees who share their passion and commitment to the boating lifestyle.
At Casper, the mail-order mattress company, employees can be found napping or holding an informal meeting on one of the premier quality beds on the showroom floor. The company also has a sprawling floor plan here employees can gather for informal meetings or lunch, which promotes more cooperative working relationships.
To attract Millennials, some companies are offering student loan repayment as a benefit, making payments through payroll deduction and matching a portion of payments employees make. Early adopters include Aetna, textbook company Chegg, and PwC.
Axis Communications has all new employees travel to the corporate headquarters in Lund, Sweden, for a few days of orientation. Employees meet their counterparts and top executives. Every January, the entire North American organization travels to one location to plan for the future. In 2017, they visited Cancun, Mexico.
To keep up the “fanatical” level of customer service at Zappos, every new hire is required to attend four weeks of training, including two weeks in the call center. CEO Tony Hsieh went through the first new hire training course, as has every employee since. Zappos offers $4,000 to any employee who wants to quit before finishing training. Hsieh says about 2 percent take him up on the offer, “a small price to pay for cultural integrity.”
At ASB's call center, teams are encouraged to gather socially after work, for instance, cycling or kayaking. These team members are building relationships that extend beyond work; they build trusted friendships and make real connections with one another.
As a key principle of our winning together culture, we encourage recognition in every aspect of our business, manifested by special awards at the store level and appropriate cash bonuses.
—MIKE ULLMAN, CEO, JCPENNEY
WeWork is a popular coworking space for startups and freelancers, based in New York and serving 165 locations around the globe. The facility at headquarters features a staircase with three impressive landings along with sofas and lounges to promote synergy among WeWork teams and more than 100 other organizations renting space in the three-story building.
In its twenty-fifth anniversary year, SAS established a work life department, which provided educational, networking, and referral services to help employees choose the right college for their children and set up a retirement plan fund with contributions only from the employer. SAS estimates that they save as much as $80 million annually in recruitment and replacement costs as a result of benefits that allow the employees to eliminate hassles in their personal lives. Since the mid-1990s, SAS has offered their Generation to Generation Elder Care program with a full-time referral specialist helping employees locate nursing homes and assisted-living facilities for their aging parents.
CASE STUDY: FROM CYNICISM TO COLLABORATIVE RESULTS
When Glenn Tunstall was chief superintendent for the Royal Borough of Kingston-up-on-Thames (London, United Kingdom), he had 450 policemen and policewomen within his span of control. His challenge was to rid his team of their cynical attitude.
Tunstall started by analyzing crime-solve rate data and engagement scores and discovered he needed to show his team that the level of employee engagement drove crime-solve rates. He replaced the usual posted data charts with a simple sign that read, “You said, we did.” He wanted to reinforce the need for the team to focus on listening and acting. Tunstall also started a recognition program. Anyone in the borough could recognize others for their achievements. It became so popular that junior officers asked their managers to incorporate recognition in the their work areas.
Result
In the last few years, the Kingston police have doubled the percentage of crimes solved and reduced complaints from the community by 59 percent. Under Tunstall's leadership, Kingston became London's safest borough and achieved the highest levels of public confidence and victim satisfaction in the Metropolitan Police. Tunstall was later promoted to Borough Commander. Today, he is an Engagement Consultant. Changing the culture at Kingston borough remains a favorite achievement.
“In relation to involving staff in our decision making groups, I openly say that every great idea that we implemented at Kingston has come from outside the leadership team,” says Tunstall.
WellStar Health System in Marietta, Georgia, provides concierge services for team members to take care of daily errands, oil changes, dry cleaning, grocery shopping, gift buying, and travel planning. It's free and meant to ease employee stress during the workday.
Their Back-Up Care Advantage program provides eighty hours of care for the children or elderly relative of employees so employees can feel comfortable proceeding with their workday when things don't go according to plan.
According to Bersin Talent Management Systems, engaged businesses have:
- 28% higher revenue per employee.
- 87% greater ability to hire the best people.
- 156% greater ability to develop great leaders.
- 92% greater ability to respond to economic issues.
- 114% greater ability to plan for the future.
- 28% less downsizing.
- 49% lower turnover of high-performing employees.
- 17% lower overall voluntary turnover.
When Southwest Airlines decided to modernize their uniforms, executives realized that instead of hiring an outside designer, they had great designers already on board—their employees. After communicating to the company about their intentions, hundreds of people said they wanted to help. More than forty employees met every two weeks over a nineteen-month period in Chicago and Dallas to collaborate on the redesign. Joan Mast, a flight attendant that participated in the process, called it an “unforgettable experience.”
Coca-Cola hired the Gensler architecture firm to redesign the workspace for its 5,000-plus employees. The result featured a “Main Street” in the middle of its six buildings with conversation-friendly lounges, cafes, a medical center, and a pharmacy. Since the redesign, division executives choose to have more multiday meetings on campus versus renting space. Meeting costs have dropped while employee morale has improved.
Having a good time is the best motivator there is. When people feel good about a company, they produce more.
—DAVE LONGABERGER, CEO, THE LONGABERGER COMPANY
FuzePlay, an educational technology company based in Salt Lake City, Utah, designs and makes hackable toys. Due to massive popularity on social media, founder Cristy Sevy created a volunteer program for parents who want to emulate FuzePlay's designs.
At Hyatt Hotel, employees donate a lot of time to their local communities. In one year alone, more than 7,000 employees from 170 locations in forty-four countries put in 26,000 hours of volunteer time.
Office supply giant Staples has started using an online platform called Profts4Purpose to encourage employees to volunteer for the charities that are personally important to them. That's one way to encourage engagement, but Staples takes it a step further. Via the platform, employees can request that the company make a donation to their charities.
After going public, audio-products maker Skullcandy experienced a loss of the youthful, streetwise part of its culture. In response, management created a new skate environment featuring functional skate ramps and skateboard memorabilia. They focused on having a collaborative environment with incentivized performance-based flexibility.
Before Nike evolved its sustainability policy, the shoe giant asked employees for their ideas. They collaboratively came up with a new sustainability initiative hallmarked by employee commitment.
Kimpton Hotel chain is famous for the Kimpton Moment, a customer-focused strategy of providing guests with genuine, in-the-moment, exemplary service. Kimpton believes that in order for their employees to continuously provide great service to guests, the employees must experience great service from the company. They maintain a fun, informal work environment, awarding $10,000 annually to the employee who provided the best Kimpton Moment. They also have an annual Housekeeping Olympics. Managers at all levels follow an open-door policy.
Engaging our employees in workplace health programs helps reduce their health risks, improves productivity, and increases employee satisfaction.
—BILL RHODES, PRESIDENT AND CEO, AUTOZONE
After Hurricane Katrina, Entergy, the power company in New Orleans, Louisiana, immediately helped all 1,500 of its employees move to safer housing. They facilitated access to transportation, child care, and physical therapy. They also told employees not to worry about their jobs, that they could take the time needed to resolve their domestic problems. Terry Seamons, senior vice president of HR, says the company experienced “enhanced employee engagement and even reduced turnover.”
Fast Company calls W.L. Gore “the world's most innovative company” because they do things vastly different than almost every other organization in the world. They have been different from their first day in business in 1958. They have no formal hierarchy, managers, job titles, or time cards. Work teams evaluate and rank the members of their team based on individual contributions, and the evaluations and rankings are made public within the work team.
Morning Star, a tomato processing company in Woodland, California, advocates self-management. There are no supervisors in the company. The company's mission is the boss. Each employee develops their own mission statement that aligns with the company's mission. They must convey specifically what and how that employee contributes to the mission. The policy seems to be working: Morning Star's growth rate has been in the double digits for twenty years.
Chelsea Long, a customer support specialist at Adobe Software, values the company policy that lets her simultaneously volunteer and donate money to a nonprofit organization. For every ten hours of employee volunteer time, Adobe allocates a $250 donation to the charity of that employee's choice. Thus far, Long is responsible for more than $2,000 going to charity. “You can volunteer anywhere, for anything, but Adobe also sets up many different volunteer activities, ranging from serving dinner at the Ronald McDonald House, organizing donations at Materials for the Arts, and preparing meals for the homeless at the New York City Rescue Mission,” says Long.
A significant corporate social responsibility policy at the Timberland Company is its Path of Service policy, which provides all full-time employees with forty hours of paid time off for community service. When John Pazzani joined the company during tough times, he suggested to CEO Jeff Swartz that the program be discontinued. Swartz said he'd consider the suggestion after Pazzani had “done his time.” Pazzani now says, “It may be a costly benefit, but we don't lose people.” Timberland's voluntary turnover is in the single digits, virtually unheard of in retail. An additional benefit is that customers frequently want to sign up too.
Well known for their benefits, including an on-site Montessori daycare center, fitness gym, health center, and help with elder care and other issues, SAS keeps employees because they love their work, “creating innovative software.” A systems developer who left to work for Cisco after eighteen years was back within nine months explains, “Technical procedures that took hours at Cisco typically took minutes at SAS. In three weeks at SAS I did more than I did in nine months at Cisco.”
As part of Zappos's Wellness Adventures initiative, wellness coordinators randomly pull people away from their work to go and do something fun instead. It could be trampolining, laser tag, or taking a quick golf lesson.
Chick-fil-A's Wellness Center has treadmill-desk rooms where employees can sign up, take their laptop, and walk while they work.
In research by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, organizations driven by purpose and values outperformed comparison companies by 6 times.
—THE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT GROUP
For credit card company Capital One, it's not always about what's in your wallet. It's what's in bed—as in someone resting. Michelle Cleverdon, strategist for workplace solutions says, “We believe in the power of relaxation to rejuvenate and recharge, which is why we have nooks and crannies optimizing every square foot to create hideaways offering a sense of sanctuary.”
Former Nucor steel company CEO F. Kenneth Iverson stopped the practice of using different-colored hard hats to distinguish functional areas. The various colors had acted as a divide among the different divisions. When workers protested, Iverson held a series of discussions with the employees to help them understand that their authority did not come from the color of their hard hats but from their leadership abilities.
Nucor has avoided layoffs for more than twenty years by adopting a no-layoff policy. It developed the Share the Pain program under which all employees take pay cuts during an economic downturn. Workers and foremen take a 20 to 25 percent cut; department heads take a 35 to 40 percent cut. The higher the management level, the higher the percentage cut. Says former CEO Dan DiMicco, “You can't build a loyal workforce that's going to give you everything they have if, when times are bad, you say we don't need you now.”
CUNA Mutual Group, a Wisconsin insurer, wanted employees' opinions to shape its corporate social responsibility campaign. Through internal websites, surveys, social media, and meetings, management asked more than 900 employees to identify the kinds of volunteer work and charitable giving they found most meaningful. They found that more than 90 percent of CUNA employees cared deeply about sustainability and used this insight to develop a company-wide sustainability and conservation program.
For Sylvain Labs, a New York-based brand design consultancy, “side hustles” are part of the business. CEO Alain Sylvain says, “We celebrate side hustles. A lot of people have side projects that they're working on—we create an environment where people can be more public about it.” For example, an employee who makes furniture on the side built the company's conference table.
According to Gallup, only 41 percent of employees felt that they know what their company stands for and what makes its brand different from its competitors.
—STATE OF THE AMERICAN WORKPLACE REPORT
IBM now offers employees reimbursement of up to $20,000 for expenses related to adoption or surrogacy; it previously offered $5,000 for adoptions only. According to Barbara Brickmeier, vice president of benefits, “We have a general approach of wanting to meet employees where they are.” She said employees had requested the change.
Besides the on-site gyms open twenty-four seven and up to $650 in fitness credits, personal finance software titan Intuit also provides forty-five bikes for cycling commuters at its facility in San Diego, California.
A SilkRoad Technologies Survey identified the following ways to best foster employee engagement:
- Trust in management
- Career development
- Stimulating work environment
- Recognition and rewards
- Flexible work options (e.g., work from home)
- Learning opportunities
- Career advancement
- Salary
- Good benefits (medical, dental)
- Mentoring
- Diversified comp options (e.g., pay)
- Good pension and retirement plans
Camden Property Trust, a real estate investment firm in Houston, Texas, has a “hugging” tradition that welcomes employees and their ideas with “open arms.” Perks include $20 per night vacation stays in company furnished apartments. The company also pays up to $4,500 per year for college tuition for their employees' children.
United Shore Financial Services, based in Troy, Michigan, offers employees many perks, including an on-site Starbucks, gourmet cafeteria, and convenience store. Each Thursday, the company hosts hundreds of team members at a dance party for ten to fifteen minutes, beginning at 3 P.M. The theme varies each week.
Michigan financial services company United Shore is one of the first companies to build their own in-house escape room. Designed and operated as a mortgage-related experiential learning experience, the room puts groups of six to twelve together to solve challenges, mysteries, and puzzles that each group has forty-five minutes to overcome to “escape.” Infosys offers employees an extensive slate of opportunities for reducing stress on the job, including yoga, swimming pools, aerobics, gymnasiums, and cycling. The company also hosts rock shows and festivals and various cultural activities and offers training on topics such as time management and stress reduction.
At their new corporate headquarters in San Diego, California, DPR Construction uses a giant digital dashboard to continuously tracks energy use. Employees report that they are almost 100 percent satisfied with air quality, thermal comfort, and personal workspace in the new facility, according to an independent study. Since the move, DPR has experienced a drop in absenteeism and an increase in employee loyalty.
All 27,000 employees at Cummins, maker of diesel and alternative fuel engines, are encouraged to work on social service projects in the locations where the company conducts business.
Management consultants at the Boston Consulting Group volunteer their time to a host of philanthropies such as the UN World Food Program and Save the Children. After the tragic earthquake in Haiti, the group shifted its consultants from paid client work so they could apply their expertise in disaster areas.
CASE STUDY: CULTURE RULES OVER CALCULATIONS
Antonio Rodriguez, a management consultant working in Brussels, shares an experience in which organizational culture trumped any and all rational decisions, processes, or calculations—at least until critical integration steps have been taken:
In my times as head of post-merger integration at the largest Belgian Bank, Fortis, I had a front-row seat to one of the biggest bank merger deals gone wrong. In the process, I picked up some tips on the best ways to merge two wildly different project management approaches. I also learned that nice guys finish last when it comes time to combine large transformation initiatives.
Despite my strong belief in getting the best of both worlds, I realized that if you want a merger to succeed, make it happen quickly, impose your culture, and don't allow too much discussion. People won't be happy in the short term, especially the ones being taken over, but if you can get the job done, you can rebuild your culture over the long term. Before this experience, I didn't have such a take-no-prisoners philosophy.
Working for what was then Fortis, I was part of the team behind the takeover of Dutch financial giant ABN Amro. At the time, I believed the best approach was to evaluate what each player brought to the table and to make choices based on extensive communication and brainstorming among employees. Team leaders and executive management could then select the top technologies from each company and wind up with a best-of-breed blend.
The plan called for a consortium of global financial institutions—including the Royal Bank of Scotland, Fortis, and the Spanish Banco Santander—to jointly bid on ABN Amro, then divide up the company's assets. Most mergers are decided primarily for financial objectives; there are revenue synergies and cost reductions. It's a very concrete way to show analysts and stakeholders that this is a good decision.
And in the case of this takeover, that was the case—at least on paper. Strategically it was a great decision for Fortis. ABN Amro had a global presence but wasn't doing very well, while Fortis was a strong Belgian bank looking to expand. Culturally, though, the merger was a disaster. To begin, we had Belgian, Spanish, and Scottish banks taking over a Dutch bank, that's a lot of cultures to bring together, and we were all really different. More importantly, the consortium did not operate well as a team. Each bank remained focused on its own interests instead of the broader interests of the group, which created a lot of conflicts.
As part of the high-level team conducting due diligence for the Fortis side, I spent nine months evaluating every system and project that would be impacted by the merger. We created a portfolio of 1,000 projects grouped into 130 different programs that needed to be accomplished. It was a huge undertaking, and there were at least 6,000 people involved.
We analyzed several selective criteria, including functionality, cost, and the ability to maintain the system in the future. We made our decisions based on the facts, without involving emotions. It seemed like the fair and right way to approach the merger. But the process backfired. Fortis's willingness to compromise and its desire to include ABN Amro in decision-making led to conflicts, delays, and unnecessary obstacles. On top of this, a lack of strong leadership presence in the Netherlands by the Fortis executive team made it difficult to push projects through. ABN Amro, which had a strong organizational culture, used the leadership void to impede the takeover. They took advantage of the confusion by blocking the actions we tried to take on projects.
As with most mergers, the biggest set of projects involved mapping and integrating IT systems. ABN Amro had thousands of applications. And because its team refused to share critical information, it took us thousands of hours to complete the simplest projects, such as creating links between enterprise resource planning systems. It was a frustrating experience. The lack of cooperation was compounded by the years-long integration plan. It became clear that the longer you wait to complete a merger, the more conflicts will come up. And while IT conflicts can be solved; human conflicts are tougher to tackle. You can't throw money or resources at human conflicts to make them go away. When people get frustrated, projects fall behind.
The merger failed. ABN Amro was turned over to the Dutch government, and Fortis was on the verge of bankruptcy.
Thankfully, the Belgian government bailed out Fortis, and after many discussions at the national level, sold it to the French bank BNP Paribas last year. It was very difficult mentally to go from a leadership position in a company acquiring one of the most prestigious banks in the world to failing and being taken over. In retrospect, though, I learned many tough but valuable lessons about what went wrong with the previous merger. We could have succeeded if we had taken a different approach.
A friendly merger is noble in principle, but it's also the most difficult to accomplish. If we had imposed our culture on them, it would have been more successful. BNP incorporated the Fortis team into its organizational structure and put its own people in key roles. Although the two banks have similar project management strategies relating to reporting and governance, the two methodologies diverged from a communications standpoint.
At Fortis there would have been a lot more discussion, employee involvement, and brainstorming. At BNP instead, it's a top-down approach that is more focused on speed and results. Most of the IT post-merger integration projects involved simply phasing out the Fortis systems over a set period of time and moving client accounts and data onto the BNP systems.
From a results standpoint, it was much easier and more efficient. Rather than spending months evaluating the IT systems and agreeing on a combination of technologies and tools, BNP eliminated almost all of the Fortis infrastructure. The massive undertaking was completed in less than eighteen months.
But when speed is critical, it may be the only option. There are no discussions. There are only orders to follow. It's not motivating to the Fortis team and everyone's a bit angry, but it's efficient. That efficiency enabled BNP to achieve its merger goal, and now it can focus on rebuilding what morale might have been sacrificed. The bank has already made some concessions to appease its Belgian employees, customers, and government. Few people lost their jobs as a result of the merger, and BNP opened four global competence centers in Brussels to show that the bank wants to create a stronger presence on the national and global level.
These kinds of situations are difficult to go through, but there is a change-management process. First there is denial, then asking, “Why us, after all we've accomplished?” But eventually you digest what's happened.
In my experience, there are different types of groups and efforts to be done around employee engagement after a merger:
- Employees who are part of the integration project usually don't resist much and embrace the new reality fast. If put on the front line, they tend to become great ambassadors.
- Employees who are very positively impacted, that is, those who take a leadership position in the new organization or find a better job remain engaged but are usually very few.
- Employees who are positively impacted, that is, those who are looking for a change and take the opportunity of the merger to take a redundancy package remain engaged but are also few.
- Employees who are negatively impacted, those that lose power, whose position loses weight in the organization, or who have to report to someone else are usually the majority of the taken-over organization. Those employees are heavily impacted and need lots of effort to reengage. I have experienced two approaches: Either you invest heavily in helping them go through the transition (via the Kubler-Ross change management curve), or you do nothing and expect them (that is, force them) to embrace the new reality. The latter tends to work for a while, although most of the employees will never feel as engaged as in the past (“our company was much better” syndrome). So although it requires more effort and patience, in the long term, investing in proper change management is the best for full integration.
Business software maker SAP launched its Social Sabbatical in a recent year to help entrepreneurs and small businesses compete in emerging markets. They also gave employees the chance to work on international teams, and gave them the training needed to succeed. To help develop businesses and infrastructure for poor communities around the world, employees go on a paid four-week sabbatical.
At PwC, a $36 billion professional services firm, employees have countless opportunities for growth, travel, and leadership experiences. PwC hired more than 5,500 new college grads in the past year and started a student loan pay-down benefit of up to $1,200 a year per employee.
Sales professionals at Novartis Pharmaceuticals highly value their compensation and the company's level of commitment to the community. Known for developing and providing free drugs to people who cannot afford to pay, Novartis regularly informs its employees about their contributions to reinforce the notion that the company does what it says it will do.
Over a nine-year period, Campbell's Soup dramatically increased employee engagement. At the beginning of the period, 62 percent of employees were disengaged. CEO Douglas Conant demonstrated his commitment to improving employee engagement by advocating for a number of changes. He removed the barbed-wire fencing around corporate headquarters. He initiated communication workshops to help managers improve relationships with their direct reports. He started having people evaluate their managers, and poorly performing managers were replaced by people within the company. He also wrote personal thank-you notes to high-achieving employees. At the end of the period, 68 percent of employees were actively engaged. Company earnings increased up to 4 percent per year.
Zappos has a corporate goal of creating fun and weirdness at work. At their annual Bald and Blue Day, employees raise money for charities by shaving their heads or dying their hair blue.
Taj Hotels, part of Indian Hotels Company, hired prospective frontline staff from small cities and towns, believing that the “people coming from these areas appreciated traditional values such as respect for elders, honesty, loyalty, and empathy,” according to management papers. They recruited directly from high schools and conducted tests to judge candidates' integrity, consistency, ability to work under pressure, and go beyond the call of duty.
Alibaba founder and CEO Jack Ma's love of martial arts is evident everywhere in the work culture. The company values are known as Six Vein Spirit Sword. Each vein represents a company value—customer first, teamwork, embrace change, integrity, passion, and commitment. Employee performance ratings are partly based on how well employees demonstrate the values. Workers select a martial arts nickname for themselves, which are only used in meetings, emails or performance reviews. Vice president of global initiatives Bryan Wong says, “We use the nicknames, and the broader martial arts motif to inspire staff to think of themselves as outsiders fighting for a cause.”
Analytics company Hotjar has fifty employees, all of whom work remotely across sixteen countries. It offers employees two company retreats a year, €4,000 to set up a home office, free Fitbit, and a €2,000 budget for vacation.
SmithCorp, an education recruitment company in Bristol, England, has always tied incentives to performance. The company's 140 employees compete for annual all-expenses-paid holidays. They are also eligible to receive free lunches and even a Rolex watch if they make certain numbers. Free breakfast is provided daily in the newly added “hub.” Chief development officer James Hodkinson says, “We're growing up as a business. Thirty or forty years ago, employers weren't doing a lot of these things, but I think there's an expectation from potential employees that you're doing a bit more.”
What makes employees come to work is a sense of pride, recognition, and achievement. Workers committed to their jobs and recognized for their work will work whatever hours it takes to get the job done.
—THOMAS KELLEY, FORMER CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD, SOCIETY FOR HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
To ensure their new dogs become acclimated at home, craft beer company Brewdog in Scotland gives employees a paid week off from work.
ZPG, an Internet and real estate company based in London, England, offers interest-free loans for home improvements and weddings.