Defining a Great Corporate Culture

tape measure from Sweden.
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Several times now I’ve said that a great corporate culture is the only sustainable competitive advantage. How do you define a great corporate culture? Here’s how we define and measure our culture to determine if we are doing a good job:

  • We measure ourselves against the core foundation of good work, good people, and good pay:
    Good work – fun, interesting, and challenging
    Good people – positive, self-starting, and supportive
    Good pay – well above average compensation with strong benefits
  • We have an anonymous quarterly survey sent to all employees asking if they agree or don’t agree that we meet the core foundation (last quarter we had 100% somewhat agree or agree and we typically have 92%+ agree) as well as asking the Ultimate Question (how likely are you to recommend this as a place to work to your friends)
  • We measure employee turnover and typically only have one or two employees leave per year
  • We require unanimous consent for any new hires (anyone in the hiring process can say ‘no’ and the candidate will not move to the next round)

Defining a great corporate culture is hard. We’ve set out our own standards and methodology and feel confident we have an awesome corporate culture.

Comments

4 responses to “Defining a Great Corporate Culture”

  1. Marla Wynn Avatar

    Smart and informative. We feel that everyone should be working at something they love. Corporate culture is a very important aspect of achieving this goal.

  2. Jerome Pineau Avatar

    “typically only have one or two employees leave per year” – is that stat based on those who leave willingly or those who get pushed out? 🙂

    I think it’s iffy to base anything on employee surveys when clearly people will likely not answer honestly for fear of retribution – anonymous or not.

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  4. […] that strong employees always have multiple job offers. Of course, the best thing to do is create a great culture that not only attracts awesome people but also retains […]

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