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When a company has 15+ divisions and continues to scale, how can you ensure that service and productivity grow alongside it? Two words: company culture.
By drafting the beginnings of the foundation of their culture through values and higher purpose, the executive leaders at Vensure HR are taking the steps needed to further prioritize people in their business’ growth strategy. Dive into their culture-building experience with a DH Masterclass:
If you were to describe your ideal company culture as an animal, what animal would it be? The group at Vensure HR added a bit of imagination to their animals; from dowls [dog-owls] to eagle-phants [eagle-elephants], there were commonalities in their traits like an emphasis on agility, family, wisdom, and loyalty. Like with each animal, there are unique strengths with each organization. Letting some creativity into the process allows culture leaders to think about what empathetic qualities make for a memorable culture because it isn’t just about stiff numbers like sales and transactions, it’s about how it makes you feel too!
To create a company’s purpose statement, we like to encourage an expansive mindset about how the organization impacts the world-at-large. An organization’s purpose should be traced to the deepest, most meaningful, unique benefit offered to your customers and be an integral part of the business strategy. We call the activity we did “benefit tracing”, where you start with a tangible benefit but then take it a step deeper by asking, “what are the benefits of that?” Yes, Vensure HR offers employer services to businesses, but what is the true benefit that can be traced from there? The leadership team drafted some statements that involved freedom, alignment, opportunity, and empowerment. One of the next steps for the team is to get alignment on their purpose statements and narrow them down further - we can’t wait to see how it shapes up!
When we talk about HOW to create a culture’s foundation, values are a big part of that. Values act as a compass used to navigate how to bring a culture to life. Most company values are on a plaque somewhere or in an employee handbook, but the leadership at Vensure HR wanted them to play a more active role in the culture.
To explore core values, each person participated in an activity to help them define their personal [ME] values.
Then the group looked at insightful survey data from their employees on values to discover themes and opportunities for alignment [kudos their employees for the high completion rate!].
Why survey data? Because culture is both top-down and bottom-up. This means that to be successfully lived, both leaders and employees need to feel ownership and alignment over their organization’s values. For the next steps, the team will take more time to incorporate employee insights into finalizing the company’s core values.
One of our favorite activities to end a Masterclass with is our gratitude circle. We even circle up at our own All Hands Meetings to express our appreciation for one another. From the CEO Alex Campos to Human Resources VP Debra Lopez, the leadership team went around and shared gratitude for their experience and for the person standing next to them. It was amazing to hear how inspired and connected they felt at the end of the day, and also how determined they were to keep the culture-building work going into the following weeks.
In a time where companies are ramping down for the holidays, it was thrilling to witness Vensure HR’s leaders putting in the work to create the foundation for a happier, more sustainable culture for their business and their people.
How is your company prioritizing culture in the new year?
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