What Company Culture is And 10 Great Company Culture Examples

Company culture encompasses the entire identity of an organization. It consists of the company’s personality and atmosphere within which it operates, more specifically the management team’s leadership style, company mission, values, expectations, systems, and so on. Because culture can largely affect your company’s success, understanding what company culture is and clearly defining yours is essential.

Some companies find it helpful to use project management tools to help organize their culture development planning. Monday.com is a project management tool that helps align your team around common goals. It offers guidance on setting project goals, timelines, files, calendars, and more. It also comes with customizable templates to help teams visualize the information they need. Sign up for a free seven-day trial, so you can try it out with no commitment.

Visit Monday.com

Why Company Culture Matters

If you have ever heard of the adage, “you cannot not communicate,” then you know what we’re referring to; you cannot not have a company culture. However, company culture matters not only because a company has a “culture” whether it meant to create one or not, but also because it’s a good way of communicating to everyone within the business and out that a certain quality, belief, or priority matters.

What are these qualities, beliefs, or priorities? They can be what’s most important to your company: its people, profit, status within the community, you name it. The answer to that question largely contributes to the identity of your company, or brand, which then feeds into your internal company culture.

Employees always seem to know whether or not their organization’s culture is healthy. These same employees may not know how to define a great company culture, but they know it when they see (or feel) it.

If you need help setting the groundwork for a positive company culture, consider using a partner like Bonusly. It’s a recognition and rewards platform that allows you to acknowledge employee successes. Your team can recognize wins with its cool social chat features like GIFs and emojis that embody their personalities. You can also distribute tangible gifts, creating custom rewards like lunch with an executive or gift cards. Sign up to start using a free trial of Bonusly today.

Visit Bonusly

Ten Examples of Awesome Company Cultures

Although one size doesn’t fit all, looking at what has been successful for others can certainly give you a strong push in the right direction. These examples of great company cultures are from many different industries and cover various company sizes and lengths of time in business. When reviewing this list, be sure to look for companies (or brands) that you might relate to and ask yourself why you’re drawn to the example. You may find that your customers are drawn to your business for the same reasons.

1. REI

For the outdoor lovers or people who just enjoy buying awesome outdoor gear, REI has probably been a place you have visited. REI is a cooperative, partially owned by employees and member-owners. The work-life balance that REI imbues is a powerful one; its company policy includes closing the store on Black Friday (the biggest retail shopping day of the year), so employees can enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday weekend with their families.

Takeaway: When your employees are completely aligned with, immersed in, and dedicated to your company’s purpose and the company aligns its actions with their interests, the culture expands and regenerates on its own. It becomes self-sustaining.

2. Clif Bar

Clif Bar & Company is an American company that produces organic foods and drinks; its flagship product, CLIF Bar, was one of the first energy bars on the market. The company has become an industry leader in engaging staff and embracing healthy living by creating a work-life balance that rivals just about any outdoor-focused brand.

Takeaway: Placing your employees at the center of your corporate brand is a win-win. Your company gets authentic branding that spreads throughout, from customers to employees. Allowing employees to help shape the company’s culture is a great strategy to ensure you receive buy-in.

3. Salesforce

Salesforce continues to build a culture through trust and engagement with its employees. Internal Salesforce business centers around culture. It’s not a component of the company—it’s at its core. The Salesforce team refers to their collective “Ohana,” which is a Hawaiian term referring to family. This Ohana experience begins during the process of onboarding new employees. Instead of it being a task that HR takes on, the Salesforce community, or Ohana, welcomes their new members to the team.

Takeaway: Culture is best maintained when it seamlessly integrates into the foundation of the company rather than operating as a stand-alone initiative that competes with other priorities. It’s much easier for other employees to connect with the culture when they have the opportunity to contribute to it.

4. Dynatrace

Great culture sometimes means less is more. Dynatrace is not known for all its many perks, but rather for having a culture of trust and inclusion. Its workforce is largely remote, and team communication, scheduling, and workflow are all done under a strong ownership mentality that all employees cultivate.

Takeaway: Trusting your employees rings much louder than fancy perks and expensive benefits programs. Employee engagement and autonomy is what keeps the interest of employees who want to grow within the company.

5. Google

The world’s most popular search engine, which also creates cloud computing, hardware, and software products, is made up of engaged employees who love their work environment. They love their ability to address everyday life needs while on the Google campus. Google provides child care, dry cleaning, educational classes, free meals, and so on.

Although these resources surround their team members, it appears that the culture is at its strongest point when it allows for cross-team innovation and collaboration. This promotes engagement and boosts the company’s potential to create more products.

Takeaway: Large brands and companies can maintain an engaging company culture that is inclusive for all employees. It’s not just about the money, it’s about leadership believing in the importance of having a great company culture and employees who trust their leadership to keep it front and center.

6. New Belgium Brewing

One of the core values of New Belgium Brewing is balancing the myriad needs of the company, co-workers, and their families. Not only is New Belgium Brewing employee-owned (as in, everyone shares in the profits) but the company contributes additional hours to everyone’s PTO accounts when employees volunteer their time for a good cause. Also, on an employee’s fifth year anniversary, they get a paid trip to Belgium (yes, Europe) for continued industry training.

Takeaway: Having fun, drinking beer and enjoying your job on the team is a great way to engage team members long term. However, when you add a dedicated focus toward enriching employees’ lives, you’ve got yourself an unmatched company culture that thrives.

7. Intuit

Team members are asked to reach beyond the limits of what is generally accepted as good enough or best practice. They imbue the organizational mantra of “do the right thing,” and in doing so leave an open door for employee-sponsored decision making. This helps the organization continue to improve and expand over time (even though doing the right thing does not always mean it is also the most profitable).

Employees applaud their overall work experience; one employee wrote in a review of her employment at Intuit, “The culture is like family but not the kind you can’t stand spending time with or only see on holidays—the kind that cares and supports you in everything you do.”

Takeaway: Crossing lines is not only enjoyable for team members but can help grow your organization if you are brave enough to allow for edgy, yet responsible, risk taking. Employees want to trail blaze for your brand but first need permission (and a culture of safety and trust) to take that charge.

8. SAS

SAS has maintained a great company culture by focusing on its individual team members (and not just its financial bottom line). SAS encourages its team members to make their mark, and in doing so, partners with its people in growth and continued development through a carefully developed and actively maintained mentorship program.

Being a mentor at SAS is not the same thing as being someone’s supervisor. Mentors push their team members to be more, not just for the company but for themselves. One employee reported that his mentor encouraged him to know, to a certainty, what the one thing is that he is working for every day (other than a paycheck). This leadership-driven attention to employees’ individual goals speaks to a culture that helps curate more than one kind of bottom line.

Takeaway: A sustained, great culture is possible with determination, hard work and maintaining an employee-centric culture as an organizational priority. Companies like SAS sees employee engagement as more than just a task or “best practice,” they recognize for what it is: the vary makeup of the company’s future and the most critical part to their customer service platform.

9. Eileen Fisher

One of my favorites, Eileen Fisher (the brand), has always spoken with class and elegance. Eileen Fisher (the person) believes that great clothes can be made without harming the planet and that doing so requires engaged and happy employees.

Eileen Fisher has been certified as a B Corporation, which means the company walks its talk. Its “Waste No More” initiative allows the company to take used Eileen Fisher brand clothes back. It has taken back over 1 million pieces since 2009. It’s just one of the many ways Eileen Fisher is helping to build a better industry, one responsible step at a time.

Takeaway: In order to create elegant, classy products, you’ll need an elegant, classy workplace culture. Employees cannot create continued greatness without a launchpad that imbues that same quality and creative nature. It’s sort of a “build it and they will come” sort of story. If you build a classy workplace that employees love (due to a triple-bottom line or something similar), your team’s accomplishments will defy expectations.

10. HubSpot

HubSpot’s “Culture Code” is a defining element in its organization. The culture code is not just a document; it’s a living, breathing commitment to each employee, candidate, and customer. The company views itself as a talent magnet because of its inclusive culture that encourages individual development and team ownership. HubSpot’s leaders believe that since they are in the business to make other organizations better that they need to walk the talk.

The company’s “Masters” classes are made up of employees teaching employees skills that otherwise would be taught by outsiders. These classes may include anything from marketing to excel-based courses, etc. The point is, employees mentoring and teaching other employees creates a team-unified framework that binds the entire company together.

Takeaway: Hidden talents and creativity within your team are often underutilized. Successful attempts to exploit those opportunities (for example, your teams’ skill sets) can be duplicated repeatedly by all and absorbed into the company culture as team unity and next-level up collaboration.

Aligning Your “Advertised” Culture With Your “Actual” Culture

One of the challenges organizations have with maintaining a dynamic culture is matching what the company wants to what the current culture is. Many times what is advertised as the company culture is not what currently exists.

Perhaps the organization is on the road to where it wants to be (and what is being mentioned on the company’s website). If there is a significant difference in the current culture and what is advertised, credibility and trust will suffer both internally (among employees) and externally (among customers, the media).

Partnering with your marketing, HR, and other key internal teams can help you determine what the culture is for your company (present day) and how to identify and define what you would like it to become for the future. This same group of team members should incorporate culture-building into all strategic planning discussions under the premise of continuous improvement.

Key Components of a Great Company Culture

Although there are many ways to proceed with developing a dynamic culture, we believe that some cultural attributes are more important than others. Note that each of these needed attributes should be present in two forms—on the personal level (for each team member) and on a team level (or throughout all working groups within the organization).

Mutual respect: At the end of the day, if there is no mutual respect among staff, team members will never believe that their culture is one worth contributing to. Although conflict occurs within a healthy workplace, mutual respect is essential to allowing a culture to grow and thrive.
Individual and team trust: Trust is an attribute that flows throughout the entire corpus of the organization. When it is strong and healthy, there is no limit to your company’s potential. When trust is waning, your chances at establishing a great company culture decreases a little every day.
Communication: Good communication is essential within an organization. The definition of strong organizational communication needs to come from your employees, not your leadership team.
Decision making: Allowing some decision making channels to run through non-leadership managed committees is a great indicator that the management team trusts the capability and expertise of their teams. This practice promotes team ownership and directly feeds into a cultural building exercise the employees deeply appreciate.
Goals/strategies: Allowing team members into the strategic planning process, at least at the goal-setting level of planning, sends the message that you value their input.
Adaptability: This includes being able to handle revolving markets, competition, and other business-threatening demands in addition to quickly pivoting to meet changing employee needs.
Results orientation: Nothing is more powerful than completing large projects as a team. When a results-driven mindset fuels the company, it promotes organizational processes and programs that matter.
Teamwork: It is difficult to imagine a great company culture that does not promote inclusive teamwork. Your organization should avoid placing people in silos and prioritize an inclusive atmosphere where all departments and employees work together.
Employee engagement: To promote engagement, you have to focus on motivating and inspiring your team members (who are your greatest asset) to be a part of your organization. Learning what makes them tick is essential.
Learning opportunities: Cost-effective, perhaps external, growth opportunities are essential to maintain if you are to be considered an employer who truly engages their multigenerational workforce.
Meaning/Purpose: Beyond the employee’s paycheck, healthcare benefits, and vacation time, the attribute that your employees desire more than anything is purpose. They want to know that the role that they play in your organization matters significantly.
Safety: Physical safety, like for construction companies, and job security are important to employees. It’s your job to convince your team members that they are safe, valued, and cared for.
Leadership team approachability: Nothing says, “we are in this together,” than when the newest team member with no seniority whatsoever can walk into an executive team member’s office and speak his or her mind respectfully.

Company Culture Costs

There are organizations that spend a lot of money, time, and resources on culture development (and its maintenance) as well as those who find ways to reach this goal without spending a great deal of money. Although it can determine how you want to build your culture, you should note that many of the attributes listed in this article do not have a monetary cost attached to them.

Changing Your Existing Company Culture

Maintaining a carefully cultivated company culture is a job you must fully embrace. Too many companies work hard at developing their desired culture only to let its priority slip over time. Maintaining culture is more of an on-going journey than a desired destination. Culture is not a stagnant creature; it is a living, breathing entity that needs to be continually molded as your team(s) and company grow.

Knowing when to adjust or tweak your culture is important. Resist making a huge change to address a small, nettling challenge within an otherwise healthy culture. Likewise, refusing to alter a culture in any way because it worked for you at one time, also will yield disappointing results.

Here are four signs of a poor company culture; if you recognize any from your own company, you should consider making some changes:

Reduced Organizational Trust

Whether it is employees not trusting leadership, each other, or all of the above, you know your culture is off-balance when trust is lacking. A general rule is when managers hear most of the company news through the grapevine instead of directly from employees, it’s time to act.

Employee Attrition is High or a Constant

An employee’s last ditch effort to improve their vocational standing is often to leave their employer for a new start elsewhere. If you cannot hang on to top talent or your overall attrition rate remains high over an extended period of time, then you are probably looking at a more significant culture-related matter that should capture the attention of the entire leadership team. It is ever-more important to define what is, or is not, happening at your organization that is driving team members away.

The answer to this is almost certainly something greater than “the benefits aren’t good enough” or “I want to earn more money.” It typically points to larger, systemic issues such as uncommunicative leadership, unethical corporate behavior, unfairness in advancement opportunities, workplace harassment, repeated violation of safety protocols, and so on.

Lack of Collaboration or a Silo Mentality

One to three people huddled around a desk whispering about concerns is not a collaborating culture. When teams cannot work together, cross reference each other’s expertise, or celebrate each other’s successes, your company culture is ill. Healing it often takes a reviving of what you really want your company to represent.

Silo mentalities, which include employees who feel disconnected from the company and small work teams who have been pushed away from others or have separated themselves from other teams, can be a bear of a challenge to break away from. When workplace silos are deeply entrenched, key personnel changes are usually required.

When Organizational Change Is Poorly Embraced

Sometimes, it is not just the culture that is being asked to evolve; the company itself may need to alter its mission, customer base, or product or service offerings. When employees are asked to embrace these circumstances, it can be challenging, even when company culture is strong. When the culture is weak, big changes can be unbearable. Regardless of the size of your organization, downtrodden culture cannot sustain important, continued organizational change. When employees struggle with embracing change, pause and reassess what experience you are asking your team to endure; it just may require a different approach to reach the objective you desire.

Bottom Line

Whether you know it or not, you have a company culture right now. Is it the one you want? Was it intentionally designed, or did the busy work life of the organization create one by default? Remember, culture is made up of every part of your organization, the good and bad, the intentional and unintentional, how you engage team members, and how you align the entire company toward your strategic goals. Once you define it for yourself, you can focus on building and sustaining the company identity you desire.