When it comes to hiring elite candidates, if you don’t have a great company culture, you really don’t have anything.
Modern candidates rank company culture as one of the most important factors when considering career opportunities, and they can spot a bad company culture from a mile away.
What Is a Company Culture?
Two key ingredients in building a positive company culture are valuing diversity and consistently working to create an inclusive work environment that respects and celebrates employees’ different backgrounds and experiences. Company culture examples can supply the inspiration you need to launch diversity and inclusion initiatives that bring employees a sense of comfort, safety and belonging.
It’s important that your company culture accurately reflects the organization and its people, but it never hurts to learn from companies that are already getting it right. So whether your company is a small startup or a massive multinational corporation, it’s worth paying attention to strong work culture examples.
With that in mind, let’s check out some company culture examples that will help anyone interested in leveling up.
34 Company Culture Examples
User research platform dscout offers video research software designed to gather, manage and share in-context moments sourced globally. With the help of freelance "scouts," individuals provide insights through short videos on various topics, enabling businesses like REI, Nike and Lyft to enhance their customer outreach strategies. With an interactive platform facilitating real-time feedback, dscout empowers companies to collect qualitative data directly from customers and users to improve product development and brand engagement efforts.
The company says its annual engagement survey consistently demonstrates that what employees love about working at dscout is “the team and the culture.” The company aims to be intentional about maintaining its positive culture by remaining committed to its core values.
What makes dscout’s culture great: dscout has a “Work From Almost Anywhere,” policy that allows employees to work from home or out of the dscout’s Chicago office. Despite its distributed workforce, the company embraces the power of gathering together by hosting an annual Midpoint event that brings all employees to Chicago for a week-long series of strategy sessions and fun team events.
How you can apply dscout’s ideas: If you have a lot of remote employees, find time to bring everyone together in one room once or twice a year. In the meantime, host casual virtual events that allow team members to get to know one another as people, and not just as employees. For example, dscout also hosts a ritual Tuesday Tea event, in which someone from the team volunteers to share about one of their hobbies or interests.
Publica operates a connected TV adtech platform for managing and deploying advertising content, assisting clients in predicting ad timing and optimizing ad frequency. The company serves clients like Samsung, Fox and MLB, facilitating the management of over 3 billion connected TV ads monthly. Publica's platform includes features for ad pod automation, audience targeting and campaign management.
The company is committed to its diversity and inclusion efforts, employing dedicated diversity and inclusion staff and boasting a highly diverse management team alongside a documented equal pay policy.
What makes Publica’s culture great: In addition to its diversity and inclusion efforts, Publica also offers a number of wellness benefits beyond the standard health insurance package, including pet insurance, a fitness stipend and mental health benefits. The company also sponsors company outings like happy hours that allow employees to get to know one another outside of the workplace.
How you can apply Publica’s ideas: It doesn’t have to be a happy hour to be fun! Find opportunities — and room in your budget — to host social events for your employees and their families. These are great ways to help your employees get to know one another and also demonstrate that you’re invested in their overall wellness and not just their work productivity.
Lob’s SaaS platform integrates automation solutions into direct mail marketing campaigns. Thousands of companies across industries like financial services, healthcare and retail use Lob’s technology to access campaign analytics, minimize their environmental impact and scale their efforts through a nationwide print delivery network.
With a culture “built around supporting personal growth and professional growth,” Lob actively seeks out opportunities to encourage team engagement, while also embracing a flexible work style.
What makes Lob.com’s culture great: Lob is a fully remote employer that provides team members with various benefits, ranging from a health and wellness stipend to a flexible PTO policy. It seeks to foster meaningful employee connections with fun gatherings like trivia events and localized Slack channels that help employees make contact with coworkers in their area. Through its team building efforts and benefits package, Lob aims to offer comprehensive support that reinforces healthy work-life balance.
How you can apply Lob.com’s ideas: Implement initiatives that show your workforce you value their overall wellness and personal development just as much as their professional development. Whether it’s by offering flexible hours, resources to support remote work arrangements, mental health coverage or family planning support, helping employees make their well-being a priority can contribute to a positive work culture.
Adswerve is an adtech company that leverages expertise in data, media and tech to provide consulting services that help clients build strong customer relationships. Its services cover using first-party data to tailor the customer experience, training that helps teams get the most out of their tech, analytics for predicting future trends and other aspects of digital marketing strategy.
The company characterizes its work environment as a place where people who are “open-minded, love collaborating and enjoy coming up with creative approaches to challenges” can thrive.
What makes Adswerve’s culture great: Adswerve is a virtual-first team with employees spread across 26 states and six countries. Having a widely dispersed workforce can make it difficult to build relationships among colleagues, but Adswerve uses digital strategies like webinars, monthly all-hands meetings and Slack channels to create opportunities for people in different time zones and locations to connect with one another so they can share diverse ideas and perspectives. This effort to create a collaborative and inclusive culture falls in line with the company’s brand pillars, which make it a priority to “encourage diversity of thought and welcome everyone to speak up and share their unique perspectives.”
How you can apply Adswerve’s ideas: Look for opportunities to amplify employee voices. Don’t rely on a single channel to serve as a chance for team members to offer up their insights. Rather, try to establish multiple settings that can create space for employees to speak up based on their individual comfort levels, especially if you’re working with a largely remote team. This can include large group meetings, small group or even one-on-one dialogues or anonymous surveys.
Convention Data Services provides event registration, data management and lead retrieval services for trade shows, conferences and other events. The company works to streamline event operations, enhance attendee experiences and facilitate networking and business opportunities for event organizers, exhibitors and attendees alike.
The informal mantra embraced by the company is “our team members are our most valuable resource,” and this ethos permeates its organizational culture. With a remarkable 98 percent retention rate, the company has earned widespread recognition as the premier employer within the events industry.
The company boasts 12 weeks of paid parental leave, encourages employees to take time off to volunteer in their local communities and lets employees decide if they want to work in-person, hybrid or fully remote based on their needs. CDS also told Built In that they have a flexible PTO policy “so employees can live their best lives.”
What makes Convention Data Services’ culture great: “CDS provides a good space for individualism by allowing you to put your own stamp on the company, while receiving a high level of support,” an employee shared with Built In. The company puts its employees first, which is what helps CDS maintain such a staggeringly high retention rate. The company is also well known for promoting from within and investing in employees’ continuing education.
How you can apply Convention Data Services’ ideas: Give your employees space to take the time they need to recharge and spend time with their loved ones. Let them have a say in how they work best — whether that’s working 100 percent in-person, on a hybrid schedule or remotely. Develop learning programs for your employees that allow them to upskill and bring their new skills back to the company. Institutional knowledge is a company’s greatest asset so invest in the employees you already have.
Zoom is a platform for video and audio conferencing, collaboration, chat and webinars.
“The happiness crew maintains the company culture at each location through events, celebrations, community involvement and volunteering,” Steve Snyder, account executive at Zoom, told Built In.
That’s right, the company created a happiness crew focused on maintaining a close-knit culture as the company grows. Different teams come together to volunteer for local organizations like the Special Olympics, Denver Food for Thought and Habitat for Humanity.
New hires from across the globe attend a training session in San Jose to build relationships and learn about the company and its culture before their first day. Once they start, new hires are paired with a mentor to learn more about company culture and company outreach. During Zoom’s company-wide office meeting, employees recognize a colleague who supported them and share updates to keep everyone in the loop and show appreciation for individual successes.
What makes Zoom’s company culture great: Zoom makes a conscious and continuous effort to grow and evolve culture with the company. During interviews, when candidates are asked “who motivates you,” their response is often a loved one, so the company hosts events for people to bring their child or parent to work for colleagues to meet the people who inspire their teammates.
How you can apply Zoom’s ideas: Create a culture committee. As a company grows, culture often becomes a back burner issue. Rather than allowing culture to run unattended, create a team that meets regularly, establishes culture programs and re-evaluates culture as teams grow and change.
ServiceNow is a cloud-based platform that automates workflows, manages projects and simplifies collaboration for companies. As a small company, ServiceNow recognizes how much of an impact each new addition has on its corporate culture, and encourages everyone to give input and lead new culture, diversity and inclusion initiatives.
“Growing our local culture is a constant evolution and discussion item, but we’ve already developed some traditions,” Ryan Wells, senior technical program manager at ServiceNow, told Built In.
The company sponsors team outings like karaoke, bowling and baseball games to welcome new hires into the fold. Inclusivity is a major part of ServiceNow’s culture, so when one employee brought lunch from home while others ate out, they came together and brought lunch back to the office so that everyone could eat together.
What makes ServiceNow’s work culture great: One employee describes it as a ‘culture of camaraderie.’ Customers are embraced as part of their culture; they even bake a cake each time a new customer goes live. When it comes to company culture, little acts can have a big impact.
How you can apply ServiceNow’s ideas: Create a culture and work-life balance with a focus on individual interests. If people are comfortable sharing their quirks, others are likely to do the same. Especially for small companies where everyone has a significant impact on the culture, it’s crucial to make sure everyone feels included and represented.
Thousands of businesses throughout the restaurant industry have incorporated Toast’s software and hardware solutions into their operations. Its technology enables online ordering, tableside service, payroll and schedule management, inventory optimization, email marketing and other elements of running a food and drink business.
With many of its employees coming out of the restaurant industry, the company has outlined a clear goal to “empower the restaurant community to delight their guests, do what they love and thrive.”
What makes Toast’s culture great: Toast aims to connect its employees both to the company’s overall mission and to one another with initiatives like volunteer opportunities, as well as both in-person and virtual gatherings. Its efforts to establish an equitable and supportive work community have also included the creation of the company’s Council of Advocates for Equity along with several employee resource groups, such as Challah for Jewish employees, Drye for sober employees and Multigrain for LGBTQIA+ employees and their allies.
How you can apply Toast’s ideas: When you’ve got a large international team like Toast, establish lots of programming geared toward building community, with options that are accessible to team members regardless of where or how they work. That might look like virtual meetups, regular keynote presentations or chances to get involved in company committees.
CB Insights uses machine learning for data analysis to help companies understand industry trends and make informed decisions based on factual evidence. For a company that analyzes trends, it’s important that their employees are up-to-date with evolving technology.
“CB Insights focuses on employee growth and learning,” Alyssa Anchelowitz, senior marketing manager at CB Insights, told Built In. “They’ve expanded the training programs for managers and offered an education stipend that allowed me to learn more about Javascript my first year here.”
Managers regularly talk with employees about their paths and where they would like to grow personally and professionally. They also encourage people to take on new challenges, even hosting a quarterly Hack Day where employees work on anything they want for the company for 24 hours.
What makes CB Insights’ company culture great: The company hires people who are hungry for knowledge, and it continuously feeds that hunger with stipends and opportunities to learn.
How you can apply CB Insights’ ideas: Create a type of culture that prioritizes individual development. Both professional and personal development are major factors contributing to an individual’s success. Support your employees’ passions and this in turn will boost employee engagement and they will be more motivated at work and life in general.
Workiva’s cloud platform helps companies manage data across departments and offers controlled collaboration, performance reporting, financial reporting and more. Building and maintaining such complex technology requires coherent leadership and open communication across teams and roles.
“Nurturing a high-performance, fast-paced, innovative culture where everyone's ideas are encouraged and collaboratively debated takes considerable patience, openness and vulnerability,” Michael Bevilacqua, VP of product development at Workiva told Built In. “I’ve found the best way to achieve this is by modeling the behavior.”
Debate is a major part of Workiva’s culture and is highly encouraged and supported across departments. In order to yield the results required to keep up with the company’s high-demand product, it’s crucial for team members to be open and honest and solve issues efficiently.
What makes Workiva’s company culture great: Workiva’s leadership team fosters an environment of giving and receiving employee feedback. Leaders are willing to admit mistakes, recognize individual talents, support opinions and disagreements and exude patience, all while considering the team’s overall health and well-being.
How you can apply Workiva’s ideas: Create a culture of leadership by example. Leaders greatly influence culture, so promote people whose leadership style matches that of the company’s core values, mission and culture. People will be much more comfortable sharing ideas and be open to feedback if the people setting an example do the same.
The Predictive Index’s suite of products work to help companies make better hires, increase employee engagement and build high-performing teams. The HR tech company also offers workshops and opportunities to work with PI consultants to collaborate directly with leaders who are developing their teams.
The company motto, “Better Work, Better World,” reflects not only its business, but also its company culture.
What makes The Predictive Index’s company culture great: At PI, leaders work to recognize and accommodate different behavior and work styles through daily communication, work assignments and by offering flexible work arrangements. PI also has a number of ERGs for underrepresented groups, like Queer@PI for its LGBTQ+ employees, while supporting employee-led initiatives like Change@Work.
How you can apply The Predictive Index’s ideas: Celebrate your differences and know that they are fundamental to your company’s success. Don’t be afraid to acknowledge the existence of implicit biases and work to mitigate them. Finally, listen to your employees. If they are telling you they don’t feel like they belong or can’t be themselves at work, believe them. Create space for them to share their feelings with folks who understand, whether that’s through a forum, an ERG or a one-on-one mentorship program.
Thumbtack serves both homeowners and local service businesses. Consumers use Thumbtack’s online platform to find skilled, experienced and well-rated professionals to take care of projects around the home. The company also has a suite of tools for small businesses, giving them the capabilities to build a reputable digital presence and land jobs.
Thumbtack works to “empower homeowners to take control and local businesses to grow.” Its culture is designed to nurture employees’ growth so they can contribute to that mission and build a fulfilling career.
What makes Thumbtack’s culture great: Thumbtack has more than 1,000 employees operating under its virtual-first work model, which allows them to perform their job duties from any location of their choosing in the United States, Ontario, British Columbia or the Philippines. Because it gives team members flexibility in terms of location and schedule, Thumbtack characterizes this work style as being “more equitable and effective.” Thumbtack applies multiple proactive strategies to support its distributed workforce. Those tactics include offering a remote work stipend, establishing collaboration hours, maintaining physical workspaces known as libraries in San Francisco and Salt Lake City and using local community Slack channels to facilitate in-person meetups.
How you can apply Thumbtack’s ideas: Thumbtack emphasizes that its work structure is a “virtual-first, not virtual-only model,” and that distinction is something other companies can replicate within their own business framework. Whether your workforce is entirely remote or you offer a remote arrangement as one of multiple work options, keep in mind ways that you can enhance collaboration among team members based in different time zones and make time for employees throughout the organization to get to know one another both virtually and in real-life meetups.
Clari specializes in software for unifying and optimizing revenue processes. B2B companies use Clari’s platform to give teams like marketing and finance the tools to enable accurate forecasting, data visibility, coaching and strategy management. The technology is powered by artificial intelligence, which enables automations that help users save time on manual tasks.
With a team that serves thousands of users across approximately 170 countries, the company emphasizes “building a remarkable culture is a top priority.”
What makes Clari’s culture great: Clari has established a set of values that includes explicit commitments to supporting employees, celebrating unique identities, embracing collaboration and extending trust. One of the ways the company works to fulfill those commitments is by offering benefits and initiatives that show their employees they care about proactively meeting their personal and professional needs. Those efforts range from creating employee resource groups and recognition programs to providing stipends for wellness and professional development.
How can you apply Clari’s ideas: Assess the support your organization offers team members — such as leave options and wellness programming — to determine if it’s inclusive, comprehensive and aligns with the organization’s values. Whether it’s by conducting research or collecting feedback from team members, look at whether there are additional measures your business can implement to ensure employees feel seen, heard and valued.
Tala is a fintech company that provides financial services to underserved people around the world. Tala has built a team that is passionate about the mission and as diverse as the customers they serve.
“We have team members from all walks of life, which brings in a diversity of opinions and experiences to meaningfully drive our innovation,” Gaurav Bhargava, vice president of credit at Tala, told Built In.
The financial experts at Tala come from a range of backgrounds and experiences, which fuels creativity and growth. The company’s credit team alone represents multiple nationals and speaks several languages. Tala also provides employees with opportunities to learn new business functions outside of specific roles to explore interests and gain a holistic understanding of the company.
What makes Tala’s corporate culture great: Equity and diversity are key to innovation. Tala’s customers are their passion, and to serve them best, the company built a team that encourages creative thinking and represents its customer base.
How you can apply Tala’s ideas: Create a culture that reflects your customers and mission. The best way to serve your customers is with a team of people who are relatable, knowledgeable and passionate about their service. It will also foster an environment of people who can challenge and support each other, boosting efficiency and product quality.
Paxos is the first regulated blockchain company building products to help companies move assets faster and cheaper than ever before. The company has prioritized creating an inclusive environment for new hires starting on day one by asking them to bring in ‘rookie cookies’ to encourage team members to drop by and introduce themselves.
“We also set up new hires with team buddies, coordinate lunch with their managers and fill their desks with plenty of Paxos swag,” Helen Galarza, office manager and people operations specialist at Paxos, told Built In. “Onboarding will never stop evolving.”
Beyond the first day, Paxos encourages employee engagement by volunteering in the community and celebrating milestones like birthdays and work anniversaries. The company also hosts events like a Guacamole-Off as a competitive and delicious way to bring teams together.
What makes Paxos’ corporate culture great: On an employee’s first day, and every day after, Paxos prides itself on bringing people together with sweet treats and regular celebrations to ensure everyone feels included.
How you can apply Paxos’ ideas: Create a culture of inclusivity. Determine the best ways to bring people together, because teams that bond work better together and are inherently more comfortable giving and receiving feedback and brainstorming ideas. As you can see from Paxos’ approach, something as simple as cookies can get the ball rolling.
The Nerdery is a digital consultancy that helps mid- to large-size clients in the healthcare, retail and manufacturing industries. That’s a broad customer base, and to get the job done, the company built a team of people with a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences. Creating one culture that’s authentic to so many unique people may sound impossible, but it’s actually just the opposite.
“Trying to create a culture from the top down never feels quite right,” Jim Butts, principal software engineer and team manager at Nerdery, told Built In. “So my focus has been in supporting activities Nerds are passionate about and encouraging everyone to share their interests — however obscure.”
The company fosters work life balance by encouraging individuals to explore their passions. When an employee is promoted, the team celebrates by filming a creative video centered around their interests and quirky personalities.
What makes Nerdery’s work culture great: It’s centered on trust. Their team of Nerds are comfortable and proud to share their unique professional and personal passions. Nerdery is one of the growing list of companies that’s ditching the idea of “culture fit” and moving to “culture add.”
How you can apply Nerdery’s ideas: Create a culture based on authenticity and trust. Aside from embracing the individual factors that make every employee unique, this approach creates a more inclusive environment where people can be frank with employee feedback and recommendations.
Edmunds is an online car-buying marketplace that empowers consumers to find the best vehicle for their needs. The company began as a car catalog in the 1960s then became an early adopter of technology for car buying in the mid-1990s.
Edmunds works to empower their employees with TRUST, the acronym that represents their company values: transparency, resourcefulness, urgency, simplicity and togetherness. The company exhibits these values through all-company celebrations, bi-weekly company meetings and professional development sessions.
What makes Edmunds’ company culture great: The company makes time for monthly Take the Wheel events, which are opportunities for different departments to host a day of learning for the entire organization. These events not only make time for clear, transparent communication across the board but they also allow employees to understand how their individual contributions further the organization's goals.
How you can apply Edmunds’ ideas: Carve out space for your employees to learn as a team and have regular opportunities for transparent communication from team leadership. These events will not only help your team bond across departments, but also help them understand how their day-to-day work contributes to the overall vision of the organization.
Imprivata is a security platform for technology vendors and clients that provides customers with security, control and accountability. This high-tech company isn’t afraid to step outside the traditional tech candidate pool when growing its team.
“Focusing on the individual and their abilities rather than their past experience gives us a tremendous advantage,” Jacob Venard, director of customer success at Imprivata, told Built In.
Instead of focusing solely on education and experience, Imprivata looks for nontraditional candidates, hiring people with backgrounds in teaching, firefighting and philosophy. Joel Burleson-Davis, Vice President of Technology, studied philosophy, ethics, ancient languages, history and Greek in college, then went on to study systems science in graduate school before joining the team. The company hires people who are passionate about learning because they’re more likely to stay motivated, enjoy their work and tackle challenges with a unique perspective.
What makes Imprivata’s company culture great: Personality and motivation trump education and experience.
How you can apply Imprivata’s ideas: Create a culture with a thirst to learn. Ever had a candidate your team clicked well with, but they didn’t quite have the background of other interviewees? It might be worthwhile to take a chance and hire people who are passionate about learning because you can always teach technical skills to people who are driven to grow and conquer challenges.
FloQast provides cloud-based software that helps accounting departments streamline and improve workflows.
“Overall, I think it’s really important for management to be open about what’s going well and what’s going poorly with the business,” Mike Whitmire, FloQast co-Founder and CEO, told Built In. “I like discussing the good, but honestly, I see more value from discussing the bad.”
Having open communication across teams and experience levels has built a healthy culture where everyone is comfortable asking tough questions and making a team effort to overcome adversity. Not only that, but employees are more comfortable being upfront about their concerns and needs within their team and in their individual career paths.
What makes FloQast’s company culture great: Transparency is key to FloQast’s culture and is embodied by everyone from the CEO to the latest hire. One employee noted how surprised she was at how transparent the CEO and COO were during the interview process.
How you can apply FloQast’s ideas: Create a culture around transparency. Always be intentional about having open conversations about information regarding the company and the internal and external factors that affect its health. If leaders are transparent with their direct reports, open communication will flow through the organization.
Bluecore is a retail marketing platform that uses AI technology to help companies boost campaign performance. For Bluecore, customer success is deeply rooted in its corporate culture — in fact, it’s one of the company’s core values.
“Culture is driven by a unique set of values and personality centered on clear goals that define success. Our team is clear on its goals and we are incentivized through compensation structure and recognition. With that foundation, we can apply our personality and values to define how we will accomplish those goals,” Kim Surko, vice president of customer success at Bluecore, told Built In.
Bluecore starts career pathing during the recruitment process and continues throughout the employee’s time at the company. Senior leaders offer career coaching and guidance to help team members explore their passions and find roles within the company that allow them to utilize their unique skills — even if that means creating a new role.
What makes Bluecore’s corporate culture great: At Bluecore, customer and employee success and satisfaction are the top two priorities. The two go hand-in-hand, and as they build each other up, they create an external and internal army of brand ambassadors.
How you can apply Bluecore’s ideas: Create a positive company culture driven by customer success. If the customer’s happy, everyone’s happy. A team that works together with a collective goal to improve customer experience will create an internal organizational culture of collaboration and mutual success.
GTreasury is a SaaS and risk management platform that helps digital treasurers across the world make informed decisions. As a fast-growing and evolving team, GTreasury has had to integrate international teams and products.
“To accomplish these goals, teams are working hard to over-communicate and get constant feedback,” Ashley Pater, GTreasury’s SVP of product told Built In. “This includes conference calls at odd hours to accommodate time zones and weekly meetings.”
For an international company, over-communication is key to ensuring everyone is well-informed and ideas are being heard. To bring teams even closer together, GTreasury hosts a variety of team bonding events, including a charity chili cook-off, a Halloween hackathon and celebrations for birthdays, weddings, new family members and holidays.
What makes GTreasury’s corporate culture great: The company errs on the side of oversharing so that everyone is on the same page, ensuring time and resources aren’t lost due to miscommunication.
How you can apply GTreasury’s ideas: Create a culture that fosters cross-team collaboration, employee engagement and accountability. By building a company culture where teams rely on one another for collaboration and everyone's successes and failures are interlinked, teams will have higher incentive to work together and be held responsible.
Spotnana offers a Travel-as-a-Service platform to personalize travel booking and power quality travel experiences. The company provides a single cloud-based platform accessible to corporations, travel management agencies, suppliers and technology providers so companies don’t need an entire tech stack for their business travel needs.
The company’s core value, Respect Above All, reflects Spotnana’s respect for its diverse, global workforce.
What makes Spotnana’s company culture great: Since its founding in 2020, Spotnana has been a global company. In 2022, the company hosted its first global gathering in Jaipur, India. The event brought together 200 Spotters from 29 countries, not to mention employees from 14 different cities around India. The event, aptly named Converge, was an opportunity to foster collaboration and build community.
How you can apply Spotnana’s ideas: If you have a hybrid or fully distributed workforce, prioritize annual or semi-annual gatherings for the entire team. These types of events allow employees to connect with their colleagues in a meaningful way and help them feel a part of a larger community.
Hireology is a software platform that helps companies manage the employee lifecycle. With a mix of local and remote employees, it can be challenging to create an inclusive and progressive corporate culture.
“When you have a blended team, your local staff can help bridge gaps and build empathy,” Joel Schlundt, vice president of engineering at Hireology, told Built In.
A remote work environment opens up opportunities for both companies and candidates, but can push the limitations of virtual communication. To ensure seamless correspondence, Hireology has built a system to equip its team with everything it needs, including video conferencing in every meeting space and training for remote workers to prevent technical glitches. The company also brings remote and local teams together twice a year so that people can get real face time — instead of just FaceTime.
What makes Hireology’s team culture great: Empathy and communication are key to building relationships between remote and local workers. Hireology implemented empathy exercises, where employees swapped jobs for a few hours to help them understand the challenges of other roles.
How you can apply Hireology’s ideas: Create a healthy culture that includes everyone from everywhere. Regardless of where your employees are physically located, it’s crucial that they feel a part of the team. Invest in quality technology and create a daily routine that incorporates remote and local employees so that they are able to build relationships and contribute to culture.
Enigma’s technology is designed to provide its clients with comprehensive, actionable insights on the identity, behavior and financial health of small and medium businesses. Companies and financial institutions use Enigma’s intelligence solutions for targeted customer acquisition, risk assessments, credit pre-approvals and other applications.
Enigma has explicitly committed to cultivating “a positive, supportive and fulfilling work environment” that connects team members through shared values and goals.
What makes Enigma’s culture great: The company’s culture underscores the importance of regularly seeking out resources and strategies to directly fulfill the professional and personal needs of its workforce. For example, Enigma responded to employee feedback expressing a desire for more health and wellness reimbursements by establishing a $100 monthly wellness stipend that team members use to cover things like massages, workout gear and even healthy food options. Enigma also has a productivity tool budget that exists to ensure employees have what they need to work comfortably, such as ergonomic chairs and noise-canceling headphones.
How you can apply Enigma’s ideas: Proactively seek out feedback and ideas from your employees on ways to improve physical work spaces, team culture and benefits. Whether it’s by offering additional perks or simply creating more opportunities for team members to connect virtually and in person, work toward implementing solutions that let employees know their voices are valued and their concerns are being heard.
Updater eases the pains associated with moving by transferring utility and digital services, reserving moving companies, updating accounts and forwarding mail. Rather than having multiple phone and in-person interviews, Updater has full-day interviews.
“Unlike a typical interview, the full day is an enjoyable experience that shows what it is truly like to be a part of Updater,” Zebin Sakeeb, services engineer at Updater, told Built In.
Condensing the entire interview process into one day saves time and resources and can reduce stress. It also gives the candidate a unique opportunity to engage with the people they will be working with in their daily work environment. Typical interviews are often one-sided, but Updater’s tactic allows candidates to determine if the role and culture are a good fit for them. Employees recall the experience being more enjoyable and less stressful than traditional interviews they’ve experienced.
What makes Updater’s company culture great: Updater immerses candidates in its culture before making a hire. The company creates an equal opportunity for the team and candidate to assess the role, personality and skill set fit, ensuring everyone is on the same page from day one.
How you can apply Updater’s ideas: Create a culture where teams and candidates can make informed decisions. Interviewing is often one-sided, focusing solely on the needs of the company, but like any relationship, fit should be assessed by both parties. It can be difficult to measure culture fit through phone screens and brief meetings, but a full-day interview can provide everyone with adequate information to save time on making a final decision.
Agile Six works with federal agencies to design their digital services in a way that is modern, inclusive and user friendly. A large portion of its work has centered around collaborating with agencies that serve veterans, and the company’s capabilities include product development, research and Agile coaching.
Laying out its core values as purpose, wholeness, trust, self-management and inclusion, Agile Six seeks to establish a people-first workplace culture.
What makes Agile Six’s culture great: Agile Six’s employees are given lots of flexibility and autonomy, as the company not only operates fully remote, but also emphasizes a self-managed team structure. That means individual team members are trusted to make decisions about things like when they take time off, how to complete job tasks and the trajectory of their professional development. This element of the work culture instills in them a sense of responsibility for contributing to the organization’s overall success.
How you can apply Agile Six’s ideas: Take a look at how much personal control your employees have over how, where and when they work. Consider whether there might be room to allow them greater space and flexibility so that they feel empowered to embrace work-life balance, giving them the support they need to do good work while also making ample time for their personal well being.
Sphera, formerly riskmethods, a supply chain management software company, built a culture that celebrates its internationally diverse cultures.
“We are very lucky to have people from different countries and cultures all throughout the office,” Coleen Shaughnessy, a marketing specialist for Sphera told Built In. “So, learning about different traditions and holidays in other countries is always fun and definitely makes us a little more unique in how we celebrate.”
To ensure teams in the U.S., Germany and Poland remain close across borders, Sphera offers an employee exchange program to allow employees to travel to other offices and meet their colleagues in-person. Even as the company grows, Sphera continues to have company-wide lunches on a new hire’s first day to make sure everyone feels welcome and included.
What makes Sphera’s company culture great: Sphera encourages its team members to learn about and celebrate their different international cultures.
How you can apply Sphera’s ideas: Create a company culture based on your teams’ personal cultures. If you have an international team, educate your people on cultural differences and form diversity initiatives. Doing so will improve employee performance and how teams communicate and collaborate — key components of success for remote teams.
Blackbaud, a provider of cloud-based software for the philanthropic industry, built its corporate culture around a shared passion for giving back.
“You can’t truly be successful at Blackbaud unless you are passionate about serving the nonprofit community,” Brandon Phipps, vice president of sales and market development at Blackbaud told Built In.
The company walks the walk by organizing team-wide service projects, providing time off to volunteer and offering a company match for employee charitable-giving. Employees are also encouraged to participate in the selection process of the company’s Blackbaud Community Grants program which awards grant money to local nonprofits in Austin, Texas. Of course, it isn’t all work, as the company also hosts social events themed to topics they love, like pinewood derbies, Harry Potter and an annual Star Wars movie marathon.
What makes Blackbaud’s company culture great: Blackbaud built a progressive corporate culture by hiring people passionate about nonprofits. Uniting around a common cause brings the team together and ensures everyone is working toward the same goal.
How you can apply Blackbaud’s ideas: Create a culture of passion. A business’s mission goes deeper than revenue. Emphasizing your corporate mission and hiring like minded people will reinforce the importance of what you do and foster a self-sustaining culture of success.
Ping Identity is a security tech company that protects clients’ identity information. To best serve the company’s diverse range of clients, Ping Identity has built an internal team that reflects its clients and brings a variety of backgrounds and opinions to the table to help solve problems.
“We foster an environment that is supportive, inclusive and diverse. When hiring, we recruit extensively at different college events looking for new and diverse candidates, and we promote internal referrals from employees,” Kristen Komatz, Ping Identity’s senior director of product development, told Built In.
Even more important than diversity, Ping Identity builds an inclusive environment to ensure everyone feels comfortable and welcome no matter their background or experiences. Ping Identity also offers leadership classes and mentorship opportunities to ensure new hires are matched with colleagues who are interested in mentoring and have the training needed to build a successful mentor-mentee relationship.
What makes Ping Identity’s company culture great: Diversity, inclusion and mentorship are key components of Ping Identity’s, well, identity. The company embraces change and is always looking for ways to improve its culture and the individuals that make it.
How you can apply Ping Identity’s ideas: Create a culture that’s both diverse and inclusive. Make a conscious effort to both recruit talent from a variety of backgrounds (that means stepping away from your go-to recruitment platforms) and targeting diverse candidates on their turf. No matter where you are in your diversity efforts, building an inclusive culture will make everyone more comfortable, connected and engaged at work.
Evive integrates big data with predictive analytics to help people optimize their work benefits. Like most companies, Evive experiences growing pains, but what’s kept its type of culture in sync is a collective commitment to make an impact and improve people's lives.
“Work is such a large part of a person’s life, and the benefits and support platforms that go with that work can make all the difference in how someone goes from subsisting to flourishing,” Andres Gonzalez, UI designer at Evive, told Built In.
The company is passionate about making an impact on people’s daily lives, and so are its people. To reduce Evive’s ecological footprint, the company created a ‘going green’ initiative that continues to influence its work environment. Employees extend their impact beyond the office by volunteering at local organizations, including the Greater Chicago Food Depository.
What makes Evive’s team culture great: Creating a better world and impacting the lives of others are core values, and Evive’s people act on their passion to support those values.
How you can apply Evive’s ideas: Create an organizational culture based on a cause. Support employees’ interests by providing opportunities to volunteer, start a passion project or implement programs that incorporate the whole team to meet a goal.
Reonomy is a search platform for commercial real estate that uncovers insights and new opportunities for users nationwide.
“We have a unique culture of ownership, enthusiasm and collaboration at Reonomy, and I’m thrilled to be a part of it,” Michael Manne, Reonomy chief revenue officer, told Built In. “Many companies talk about culture, but it’s definitely something you both see — and feel — when you visit our office.”
To champion its culture of collaboration and ownership, Reonomy shares both individual and team “shout-outs” during company meetings. The company also seeks out diverse talent who are passionate about the product, which helps everyone see the purpose and value in their work.
What makes Reonomy’s team culture great: Reonomy built a collaborative team of independent owners. All of the company’s team members are quick to brainstorm ideas and take ownership on tasks to make ideas happen.
How you can apply Reonomy’s ideas: Create a culture that supports both autonomy and collaboration. Building a successful culture is a balance of pushing people beyond their comfort zones and allowing them to succeed at what they do well. Provide your team with a mix of both so that your people are comfortable working together and are equally equipped to own their role.
Shipwell is a platform dedicated to automating the freight transport logistics industry by replacing the current manual and less transparent shipping processes. The platform helps companies find an optimal carrier with instant quoting and booking and real-time shipment tracking.
Instead of core values, Shipwell sets its culture around six behaviors because the company believes common behaviors and actions form a culture more so than values.
“Every employee gets taken through Shipwell’s culture deck and spends time with the founders to discuss the company’s vision with the founders. We take a lot of time to talk about our core behaviors and how we measure up to them,” Jason Traff, Shipwell president and co-founder, told Built In.
What makes Shipwell’s company culture great: Shipwell works hard to foster an open, transparent work environment full of workshopping and brainstorming. Traff has said his desk is the first one an employee sees after passing the office’s reception area. This reinforces transparency, aids employee retention and exemplifies accessibility, especially in a growing company where leadership can easily become closed off from the rest of the company.
How you can apply Shipwell’s ideas: Though moving the co-founder’s desk to the most trafficked area in the office is a tremendous statement, don’t feel like that’s the only way to be accessible. Simply encouraging new employees to provide suggestions or ideas and having leaders meet with employees early on can set a precedent of accessibility right away.
Shopgate, an e-commerce mobile shopping app, built an international culture based on collaboration and mentorship.
“Shopgate has a wonderfully horizontal culture: Proposals and ideas from individual contributors are valued and celebrated,” Nicollette Mead, product manager at Shopgate, told Built In. “This culture of openness and flexibility allows employees to keep growing and gravitating to roles that fit their talents and passions.”
With half of the company’s team in Germany and the other half in Texas, maintaining strong communication and culture is a constant point of emphasis. To ensure the culture grows with the company, Shopgate looks for candidates who “radiate passion,” have a “hunger for learning,” and above everything, have a shared vision for the company’s product and goals.
What makes Shopgate’s corporate culture great: Shopgate prioritizes communication and collaboration by hiring people with a shared vision and investing in tools to support their international culture.
How you can apply Shopgate’s ideas: Create a type of culture grounded in collaboration. Teams that communicate well and work together are more productive and lead to increased employee satisfaction. Especially if you have remote team members, it’s crucial to make sure they are included in company culture.
Bento for Business is an expense management software that helps small businesses control employee spending with smart employee debit cards.
“Though we move at a fast pace, and it might seem that we don’t have time to sit and explain things, every employee at Bento loves sharing, helping and lifting others,” John Turner, full-stack engineer at Bento, told Built In. Bento’s motto, “Be Human,” illustrates the company’s dedication to both professional and personal development.
To support team members in all aspects of their lives, several members of the company’s leadership team extend their mentorship beyond the workplace, helping employees be more human. This mentality of helping and supporting each other is transferred throughout the company from colleagues to customers and partners. When one employee was apprehensive about talking with the CEO, they began having regular meetings to build their confidence, discussing both personal and professional challenges and goals.
What makes Bento’s company culture great: No matter their level, employees feel valued in all aspects of their lives, including both their professional and personal aspirations.
How you can apply Bento’s ideas: Create a positive company culture of leadership and mentoring. Make sure employees are comfortable collaborating with colleagues at all levels. Encourage one-on-one meetings between various roles and teams, this will help with employee performance as well as employee retention.
Strategies to decode, maintain and improve company culture.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good company culture like?
A good company culture is one that encourages mutual respect, open communication and shared goals among employees.
Companies with a positive company culture often foster employee growth and development, employee well-being and workplace environments that are diverse and inclusive of all employees.
Why is company culture important?
Company culture reflects the identity and core values of a company, largely affecting how employees approach their work and interact with colleagues. A strong, positive company culture can increase workplace productivity and employee engagement, as well as decrease employee turnover.
What are some examples of company culture?
Some examples of company culture include Microsoft, which fosters a culture of employee growth and learning, and Google, which fosters a culture of inclusion, belonging and diverse perspectives.