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.
David Cummings on Startups 
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.
“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.