Why Great Company Perks Are Not an Indicator of its Culture?
Unlimited vacation time, free food, games, celebrations, fun gatherings, and other inspiring policies may help contribute to overall company culture, but they cannot be expressed as a sign of great company culture because they do not define a great workplace. The experience of your people does.
“Google’s culture could still be enjoyable even if some perks were removed” — Sundar Pichai.
There’s a reason we saw so many resignations despite companies offering more benefits than in previous years. I know a lot of people who have switched companies, moved to a different team, or changed roles, and I’ve noticed that the reasons listed below are the most common.
Company Culture refers to how an environment encourages you to learn from failures and succeed. You cannot be expected to innovate if you are afraid of losing your jobs, receiving lower appraisals, or being judged if you fail.
Simply put, A Culture is defined by
- How you feel around others, particularly your seniors. Do you feel confident about having an open collaboration and communication, or do you feel obligated to agree eventually?
- How much you trust your management in terms of fairness and open communication.
Why a Great Company Culture Is Important
The performance of a company is determined by the performance of its employees, and employee performance is determined by how they feel each day when they arrive at work. If they are not coming to work uninspired for any reason that is due to a company culture, then the company will not last despite all of the great perks.
At the heart of it all, A great company culture has four major components at its core.
Encouraging Innovation:
A company culture is defined by how it provides employees with a balance of innovation and deliverables.
People get inspiring ideas, sometimes strange ones, that could shape the product in different ways every now and then, but if they can’t pursue them for whatever reason and are constantly chasing next deliverables, it won’t be long before the fuel runs out and they start looking for other opportunities to grow.
Even minor innovations keep your employees energized and looking for more. If you do not authentically recognize and value your employees’ little innovations because they are not part of their tracked deliverables, it will not be long before your employees start looking only at deliverables and innovation and growth mindset takes a back seat.
Are you allowed to follow your intuitions to closure? or Would you be stopped because some senior people thought it wouldn’t work?
The realist understands that no one knows what will work in the current dynamic evolving user market unless we try it, and that pretending to know the outcome is blissful ignorance.
Genuine Sharing & Engagement:
If everyone is preoccupied with their next deliverables and no one has time to share things with each other, it won’t be long before your employees become disengaged from the team.
If your employee is disengaged with the team, having team lunches or fun gatherings once a week will not help much. I believe in Playing outdoor games such as football, volleyball, basketball, and others that keep the team running and strategizing brings out the best in engagement, which will eventually find its way to their work environment.
There’s a reason why we form stronger bonds in startups rather than large corporations. In a startup, everyone is willing to share and lift one another. I’ve worked in a variety of startups and large corporations, but I can tell you that the most valuable connections are formed in startups for the same reasons.
Relaxed Atmosphere:
If a junior level employee feels intimidated to speak in a meeting due to the presence of seniors and managers because he is afraid of being wrong or being judged for it. A little laughter, funny antidotes, a smiling manager, and making it normal to express oneself go a long way toward cultivating the right culture.
Identifying that this is happening across teams is the first step toward resolving it. On paper, some companies have a great team culture, but the people who work there don’t live up to it.
This is why the team manager sets the tone for the meeting by creating a relaxed atmosphere in which all team members feel comfortable sharing and asking questions.
Peoples Manager and Management:
How approachable are your managers?
Could you speak up to your manager if you are unhappy with your role or your work? Could you tell them you want to work in a different area or on a different team? Do you think your manager will assist you in resolving your problems? Or would you be concerned about the repercussion?
If you have to do it all quietly, that is not a good culture.
Here’s an excellent example I recently saw at Microsoft of a Manager advocating for one of his team members on how he might be a good fit for another team.
This demonstrates two things: the manager is fair and respects the decisions of his team members.
So, while great perks may make you happy for the time being, they are unlikely to keep you going for long.
At its core, the company culture is defined by how you feel around other employees, particularly your seniors.
