Company culture matters, people!!!!

It’s not touchy-feely or nice-to-have.

ICYMI: A strong, positive company culture is a sustainable competitive advantage.

You attract better talent, retain employees, stay more aligned, create customer love, scale faster, and the journey is more enjoyable.

Company culture starts with Core Values.

(Here’s how to figure out your Core Values if you are growing quickly but haven’t defined them yet!)

Once you have Core Values, how do you actually use them to improve hiring, make decisions faster, and maintain high standards?

How do you keep them top-of-mind, fun, authentic, sticky, and personal?

“You MUST do these Core Values or ELSE!” doesn’t usually work that well. 😂

When Rigor announced our revamped, employee-generated Core Values in 2015, we knew we needed to solidify their meaning and presence within the company. Because the team was so involved in the process, we saw great, organic traction right away.

One employee drew “posters” of our Core Values on white boards around the office!

We wanted to continue the momentum and embed it into things large and small, serious and fun, daily and occasional, across the company.

Here’s 7 real life examples of how we incorporated Core Values into the day-to-day experience at Rigor in meaningful ways!

In true startup fashion, you’ll see that most ideas are low or no cost with minimal effort to maintain after a bit of setup.

That’s what I’d call #UsingResourcesWisely! (That will mean something in a second…)

1. #Hashtags

Rigorians started using them as hashtags when we gave shout outs in our team Slack Channel:

It’s simple, free, obvious, and you can #StartToday!

2. Make A Graphic For Each Value

Our designer made a graphic for each value. (Now you’d use AI 😉)

We turned those graphics into:

• posters

• pillows (for the lounge couch, duh)

• Slack emojis

Check out the #WinAsATeam purple trophy:

(See the photo in the Culture Award section for the larger versions!)

3. Culture Award

We started a peer-to-peer Culture Award to recognize Rigorans embodying the Core Values.

The winner of the previous month determines who wins for the next month.

They presented our “Astronaut” (a 3D printed trophy because…I can’t even remember now!) to the new winner at our Monthly All-Hands would explain how they have embodied Rigor Core Values.

The only rule was that it must be given to someone in a different department.

We “borrowed” this idea from Salesloft who gave a pair of Salesloft-branded socks as the prize each month. Highly coveted socks! 😉

4. Review Core Values in All Team Communications

Our Core Values were included and discussed in every Weekly Update (email), Monthly All Hands (presentation), and Quarterly Retreat (offsite).

• Weekly Update: Each department has a section for Culture shout outs.

• Monthly All Hands: Review Core Values together & give Culture Award.

• Quarterly Retreat: Live Core Values by starting the day with community service activity. Highlight how each part of the day represents a Core Value (e.g. #WinAsATeam, #ImproveEveryDay).

5. Include Core Values In Performance Reviews

We added questions about Core Values to our quarterly performance reviews including a performance rating question:

How well is this employee embodying Rigor’s Core Values?

It was weighted the same as the other two performance questions.

If it matters, you need to measure it and hold people accountable!

6. Align Interview Questions To Core Values

We asked specific questions in interviews to understand if a candidate embodied Rigor Core Values.

This portion of the interview was done by someone outside of the candidate’s immediate functional area.

Below is an example of the spreadsheet we used to map Values → Work Expectations → Interview Question.

I highly recommend making a quick matrix with question suggestions aligning to each Value. Otherwise you’ll end up with everyone asking different (and crazy) questions in the name of “culture.” I’ve seen this backfire in big ways that I can’t even share on a blog! 😂

7. Core Values Within Company Policies

We included Core Values to explain the “why” in company policies or how-tos:

We also allocated budget in support of things that aligned with Core Values:

• Each department had a “Fun Money” budget of $75/employee/quarter to spend on events, team swag, or other culture ideas. #WinAsATeam #ImproveEveryDay

• Rigor offered a $2500 professional development stipend to enable folks to #ImproveEveryDay and #OwnYourWork.

BONUS: Even More Ideas!

• Postcards for career fair swag, in-office notes, or sending to remote employees

• T-shirts

• Pint glasses - one for each value; collect them all!

• Welcome Packet for new hires specifically about Core Values

• Core Value Blogs by employees - pick a value, explain what it means to you with examples of its impact on your work and career

• Stickers or decals

• Culture Award wall with winner photos and why they won

• Company competition with one event or category for each Core Value (could be 1 day or long term, e.g. #DoTheRightThing = # of community service hours as a team)

Does your company have Core Values? How have you implemented them or celebrated them? What fun or creative ideas have you done or heard about??