Kulturenvy Report by corey mcaveeney

Prepared by Corey McAveeney E-Mail: corey@kulturenvy.com Twitter: @Kulturenvy

Culture Analysis: 1 Your Company

This is a sample report and is not meant to reflect the actual culture of any company.

Your Company Survey Results & Analysis 1

Overview This sample report is meant to give you an idea of how a fresh look at your culture and anonymous input from your team will prompt you to make informed decisions about how to drive your culture. After reviewing your own customized report you will: •

Better understand employee expectations and perceptions

•

Learn which aspects of your culture need to be communicated to employees

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Be better equipped to maintain your unique culture and foster a sustainable culture as you grow

Values versus Mission Did you know that folks at many startups I’ve surveyed confuse the meaning of mission and values? At some companies, I come across at least one person who is surprised about the existence of their company’s cultural values. Many of you insist that having an established set of values isn’t necessary for your culture to succeed. That is analogous to creating a business without any goals. Whether you’ve taken time to communicate your cultural vision to your team or you’ve taken more of a backseat approach to driving an organic culture, chances are a pattern of values has emerged. It’s important to identify your values and communicate them. According to Your Company’s survey results, an overwhelming majority defined a key value as ‘We are incredibly smart and we write incredible content’ (287:340 folks at Your Company expressed this in their own words). So the message is loud and clear. But is this really what you value? Let me back up to review the definition of a value: something you deem important [for your success both culturally and financially]. Your team is incredibly smart. And your writing is incredible. But I’m not sure if that’s the best way of articulating what you view as important (and why you value it) to your team. It sounds more like a mission, something that you share with customers and gives them a reason to work with you. Maybe you’ve hired people that are pretty incredible but for some reason don’t fit in. Maybe you’ve hired people who bring their A-game but don’t completely understand or support your business decisions. Allow me to compare a few values that I’ve noticed from the group’s responses and my previous discussion with you:

Your Company Survey Results & Analysis 2

Your Company Values (from your perspective):

Employee Perception of Values (per the survey):

Failures are a learning experience.

Perfection is King

Your bold, no fear approach isn’t reflected among your employees. They often search for guidance from management and have cited risk aversion resulting in inaction.

This is a point of pride among many at Your Company. However, a majority has expressed concern over paralysis in the face of decision-making. Many have voiced opinions that although the quality of completed assignments are top-notch, there are many time management issues associated with over-thinking and over-analyzing due to the lack of guidance, processes and management’s inadvertent encouragement to easily get bogged down in reluctance and information overload.

Transparency

Democratic Ideals

You mentioned you value transparency. You’re not as transparent as your employees expect and you struggle to communicate your shifting priorities in the face of new developments. You are still communicating that you value democratic ideals above all else but your actions are developing in consideration of long-term goals on cultural sustainability that often seems more aligned with a need for transparency and a more keen sense of communication and awareness. If you truly value transparency, make a point to communicate your plans and demonstrate through your actions why you value this.

Your employees state this as the number one value. You’ve stated how democratic processes and employee feedback have been an integral part of your organization’s culture. However, it has become less essential since you’ve managed to hire highly talented folks who’ve helped shape the culture and the business in general. You are now leaning more towards empowering others to make certain decisions that the entire company doesn’t need to be bothered about (with respect to how the kitchen is stocked, the visitor policy, and the next off-site meeting, etc.). The reaction has been less than favorable. As you enter this new phase of growth, employees are unaware of this shift in priorities and are confused about being left out of all these minute decisions.

Be Nice (No Jerks Allowed!)

This was the one aspect of your culture where you articulated something you valued highly and continue to build your team and customers around it. Your work and mission is a suitable reflection of this value and has contributed to much of your success.

Both you and your employees are on the same page – both value the privilege of working with people you respect and enjoy being around. This extends to your customers too – you communicate a friendly work ethic that gives your customers a reason to do business with you and simultaneously give your employees a reason to get out of bed every day and participate in building a stronger business and culture.

Your Company Survey Results & Analysis 3

Communicating Your Company Values When you take time to invest in training someone to do their job you are communicating trust and transparency. When you hold people back or limit them, you are communicating that you don’t trust them or possibly you don’t want to share certain information or responsibilities with them. Although many teams have a sense of job satisfaction, many individuals expressed feeling unappreciated or unable to contribute more. Communicate why: i.e. ‘I know you probably want to interact directly with the client but I’d feel more comfortable if you just observed so-and-so this time around because you didn’t get enough feedback from the customer on your last assignment and as a result it showed me that you need more experience with XYZ’. This is an example of how to communicate that you value transparency and such actions demonstrate to your team why transparency matters. Internally, communicating transparency allows people to develop professionally; and externally it allows customers to get your best work. It may be obvious to you but unless you spell it out to everyone else, they will be left wondering why you say you value transparency but you don’t demonstrate it consistently. There seems to be a disconnect between certain groups of professional levels. Overall your staff values high quality work; however, this is often translated to an expectation of perfection from certain managers. This congests the workflow and creates an environment that fears failure and lacks transparency. Patterns of such high-pressure working relationships that exhibit a lack of appreciation, limited autonomy, and lack of trust were evident from the responses to the following questions. When asked ‘Aside from monetary recognition, how does management communicate employee achievements?’ people’s comments noted how ‘thank you’ was missing: “They don’t. It’s hard to understand how we’re performing in the short term and if we meet their expectations.” “occasionally we get an email but it’s just one more thing I have to delete from my inbox…” “I’ve been thanked for my work on projects but it isn’t a regular formality.” “As a manager I don’t think I get thanked enough and I often find myself with more work and responsibilities after being thanked” “the annual review is an opportunity to list our accomplishments but otherwise it’s rarely brought up” “Nothing like that here, at least we get the occasional raise…”

Your Company Survey Results & Analysis 4

When asked ‘Do you have a mentor?’ Participants replied as follows: Yes. [33%] No. [21%] No, but I want one. [46%] Further broken down by career level2: Yes. [33%] Of those, 72% were Management Level Talent No. [21%] Of those, 58% were Entry Level Talent No, but I want one. [46%] Of those, 63% were Experienced Professionals Further broken down by gender: Yes. [33%] Of those, 88% were male. No. [21%] Of those, 71% were male. No, but I want one. [46%] Of those, 96% were female. When asked ‘After joining Your Company, what surprised you most about the culture at work?’ responses indicated more of the same sentiments listed above: “How misguided middle managers seem.” “Everyone is incredibly talented here and we all try to equally hear everyone’s opinions and ideas. Sometimes to the detriment of good time management.” “My team is really super but I didn’t anticipate my talents to be taken for granted by upper management. I sometimes wonder if I’m contributing to our projects enough.” “This is my first job out of school so I didn’t know what to expect. I guess I thought I’d have more ownership and passion for my work and more guidance.” “Everyone here is awesome but we tend to get bogged down by a lot of red tape and receive little insight on the decisions made by management.”

The People Effect Did you know that of the 340 employees surveyed, everyone agreed that workplace culture played a role in their decision to join Your Company? The people on your staff are clearly what make it a great place to work – many noted the likeability of the team members as your culture’s greatest asset. When asked about Your Company culture’s biggest challenge, a vast majority of respondents commented on the inconsistent expressions of thanks, manager expectations, and a tendency to overlook the professional development needs of entry-level talent.

Turn to Survey Results, Appendix A for complete responses (not included in this sample report).

Your Company Survey Results & Analysis 5

People are a top priority at Your Company and the fact that they are valued at Your Company often goes unnoticed. There were a few discrepancies, demonstrating either a weakness in communication or perhaps differences in opinion, cultural fit, or both. Some comments reveal a regard for feeling unappreciated and frustrated: ‘It is Sunday evening, what’s on your mind?’ “What can I complete this week that will make my resume look good for my next job?” “tomorrow I’ll tell my boss that I’d like to try flying solo on this next project – I know I’m ready” “Avoiding disappointment from my manager but all this work I do is only ever criticized.” “I wish the weekend was longer, my 1-yr-old appreciates me more than my boss does.” “I wish we had public awards for achievement because I broke records last week, as did my team.” You are striving to get everyone on the same page but many don’t know that you are communicating employee achievements – this could be as nuanced as thinking about how you say ‘thank you’ or it may require additional effort – i.e. host an employee appreciation happy hour and have everyone on the team give a shout out to someone else, recognizing their achievement. Explain why everyone is appreciated. Somehow, not everyone is getting the message. This will aid in talent retention, which you mention you’ve struggled with for a long time. In your opinion, how well does your company retain talent among the following employees? Superbly!

Well

It's a W.I.P.

Not Well

N/A

Entry Level

161

Exp. Professionals

137

Management

118

181

Minorities

124

Women

105

146

It’s easy to communicate to young professionals coming in at entry level, but sometimes harder to find good talent and communicate your culture and values to someone with more experience. Maybe they’ve tasted the Kool-Aid elsewhere and it left a bitter taste in their mouth. 65% of people surveyed said entry-level folks are managed superbly or well; that percentage fell to 12% when it came to retaining management superbly or well. Another aspect of your culture’s strength is your approach to talent management. Your ability to attract and retain technical talent who are women is becoming as strong as your ability to attract and retain technical talent who are men. Few companies in your industry have found a way to do this successfully. In our discussions you told me that in the early days you and your executive team neglected to understand how to attract and retain talented women. It was only after a few wrong hires and a re-evaluation of your hiring practices that you decided to make an effort to hire the best people for your team. As you grew to have a headcount hovering around 50, you noticed the different needs and approaches between male and female job candidates. Intentionally making such considerations has helped you create a gender-balanced team, which I discuss in the next section.

Your Company Survey Results & Analysis 6

Gender-Balanced Teams: How It Benefits Your Company Your Company is ahead of the curve when it comes to creating a gender-balanced team; this contributes to your overall competitiveness in your industry. You already know that having a team that is 28% female is higher than the industry average and benefits group dynamics. Gender-balanced teams also benefit the bottom line – they boost productivity and are better at solving problems.3 Intentional practices to make more women feel welcome is a conscious decision that leaders in the business of innovation make in order to meet the demands of fast-moving targets like a changing workforce and evolving expectations regarding flexibility and family-friendliness. You clearly support these issues; however, it may be time to raise awareness with your team. Based on language analysis of the survey results, many are unaware of the advantages of working on a gender-balanced team. Given the fact that your customer base is largely composed of women, it would be useful to communicate why this is important to your business. Use this benefit as a tool for growth, not necessarily to increase your headcount but to expand the scope of your brand. The gender distribution of survey respondents was 24% female and 76% male, close to your actual male to female ratio. One respondent wrote: “Roughly 30% of our employees are currently women and this percentage is steadily increasing. However, less than 15% of the female employees have technical roles.” In an attempt to raise awareness, consider addressing these issues and asking how others view creating a more inclusive and aware culture would be more welcoming to both women and men working at Your Company. Here are some of the responses that illustrate why Your Company is a prime example of a company ready to enhance ‘The People Effect’: Do you value a gender-balanced work environment? “Definitely, but I don’t see how we can attract more women or turn away perfectly suited male candidates.” “Yes. We sometimes work on female-oriented content that would benefit from input from the female side.” “Taking time out of my day to fill out a survey on culture – ok. Asking me to wax poetic on the injustices of hostile, male-dominated workplaces is not something I want to waste my time on. Yes I work with women (plenty who can hold their own), why do I have to favor them or make special allowances for them? They should suck it up and run faster to keep up with us.” “Of course – it’s a better representation of society – which our work aims to reach. Unfortunately, the tech side suffers from a lack of the ladies. Really, we can’t steer the labor market.” “We need contribution from both genders to provide better experiences for our customers – which are more and more women!” “Yes and no – it’s 2013 and I can’t really help it if more women don’t want to work here, we hire only the best!” “The women that work here are great but in the very beginning (I was the company’s 7th hire) our culture was different and I miss that fun environment to a degree. But maybe it has more to do with the fact that I’m old now and we are a much bigger company.” Although Your Company’s gender balance is much higher than the industry average, the reaction among the vast majority of employees is that it doesn’t impact your business. You have stated quite the opposite. The attitude that 3

Innovative Potential: Men & Women in Teams. London Business School. www.london.edu/newsandevents/news/.../Research_Findings.pdf

Your Company Survey Results & Analysis 7

Your Company’s hiring practices reflect your awareness of equal opportunity is appropriate and the fact that you only consider ‘top players’ is both an admirable aspiration and equally misleading.

Planning for Cultural Sustainability: How It Benefits Your Company In hindsight, you’ve learned a lot from the growth of your company since its founding in 2007. With 340 employees and counting, you have dedicated a portion of your work to better understand the dynamics of a healthy company culture. Hopefully this report has given you some fresh perspectives for decision-making and highlights areas where the culture needs more attention. Let us now turn to the future and the topic of envisioning your company and the cultural landscape of similar companies on their journey from early-stage startup to companies beyond the startup phase. As your company grows you realize the shifting priorities and aspects of your business such as your hiring practices, become more defined. As a young entrepreneur when you started your company, which aspects of culture did you anticipate being a crucial part of developing a scalable culture? How will your company culture evolve as you grow? How will your company’s actions, events, and priorities develop as you grow? In the first few years you hosted a birthday party for each of your team members’ birthdays, complete with a cake and their favorite beer. You have since had to scale and now have an annual ice cream social for employees and their families. As your company matures, so will the experience and expectations of your employees. What areas of your company culture will you focus on to ensure adequate communication and promotion of your values remains intact? Flexibility and family-friendliness is one aspect of your culture that will change dramatically in the next decade. At Your Company 88% of your employees are currently under the age of 35; the same goes for many other startup companies. The lifestyles of many employees will be changing dramatically and this will have an impact on your culture. For example, when asked ‘Have you (or a coworker) ever passed up the chance for a promotion or other career-related advancement in favor of spending more time with your children? If so, what was the attitude or reaction at work?’ responses included: “I am not aware of a situation where that has been a part of a decision about someone's promotion or advancement.” “Not that I can recall, but I do care for my aging parents and that means it can be quite difficult to always be available and I had to cancel a business trip once. It’s nice that I know my boss supports me but I’m not sure how this will affect my performance or promotion potential in the future.” “As a young father I love the flexibility afforded to me and think it will get better as more folks become parents at the company. I haven’t had to pass up the chance for advancement but I am very disciplined about my time management and I know that means that email responses or attention to work matters can be slow or neglected during certain times.” “Not here, but it happened to me at my last company, they couldn’t offer the flexibility I needed.” “I know the company would like it if some of us could work more, but the company is extremely supportive of my decision to work part time in order to be available for my children. I made the decision to return to work after my first child was born and although I’ve technically been stagnant because I’m working less, it has been the right decision for me.” The vast majority of respondents replied ‘No’ (in their own words) or declined to answer the question. Consider how this may change in the coming years. Raising awareness today about the benefits of your flexibility for tomorrow communicates to all employees that you value their time in and out of the office.

Your Company Survey Results & Analysis 8

At Your Company, few employees have a mentor. It doesn’t by any means need to be a formal arrangement, but having a mentor is extremely helpful for professional development. Look closely at the interactions between colleagues and consider how you can encourage professional working relationships. Your office manager has an education background in computer science. She seems very young and inexperienced but when you interviewed her she was originally interviewing for a developer role (which is still vacant). Maybe the Lead Developer could be her mentor? Do you have a mentor? Yes No No, but I want one

112 71 157

This exercise is to get you to think about challenging your company culture’s status quo because it will impact your performance and culture. This is a trend in larger companies and it is a practice that companies in the startup ecosystem are adopting. This report on Your Company’s culture analysis connects feedback from the survey to your work and mission and looks for patterns in your culture that will help your culture thrive and your business excel.

Thank you for participating in the Kulturenvy Survey!