'Culture Eats Everything For Breakfast': Redefining Tech-Enabled Work Culture
For all the hype over the last decade or two, the idea of “tech-enabled culture” has become, in the minds of many, not much more than having a laptop at home and a setup at work, a host of self-serve apps and enough broadband to run video calls.
And that’s going to be an insufficient way to think about work culture as we all reemerge from the isolation of our home offices, basements and kitchens into a post-Covid working world. A few things are happening simultaneously: We’ve figured out that working at home can be pretty liberating, we’re starved for human connection and it’s suddenly an employee’s marketplace out there.
So let’s talk about the tech-enabled work culture in terms of this new reality.
In the tech universe, there’s no hotter employee than the mid-to-senior-level developer. (Don’t get me wrong — we’re really happy to hire junior people, too.) The real trick, though, is not just to hire someone — it’s to keep them. Big international companies can now reach into any talent pool and scoop up that city’s finest developers. In other words, we smaller local companies aren’t just competing within our own regional economy; we’re now competing with the Oracles and Microsofts and Googles of the world. And for many of us, it’s tough to compete with the prestige and, sometimes, the money that such massive companies can offer.
But that’s not to say we can’t compete. Many smaller companies will win the employee sweepstakes because they have an attractive culture. That means they don't just offer perks but an emphasis on building community and the ability to create a “working life” that meets employee ambitions in terms of their work and home life. Authenticity is the most important element of creating that kind of community. It’s not enough to plunk four people on a weekly Zoom meeting and designate it “community time.” What’s important is actual friendship, mentorship and a real sense of belonging.
Normally, that takes some time to develop, and when you find it, it can be much more powerful than a bump in salary offered elsewhere. How do you build a real sense of belonging quickly and meaningfully?
The company at which I’m CEO has grown from 10 people to 100 during the pandemic. I haven’t met the vast majority of the people I’ve hired in person — until recently, that was even true for my righthand woman, our new COO. But I’d say we’re still growing a viable corporate culture, one that lets each person know they are valued and they’re with people who will help them achieve their goals and one that helps make sure our employees stick with us. We've done that by making sure our technology-first culture strengthens rather than overwhelms our personal relationships. Here are some things I think about every day that you can apply at your own organization:
• Establish the buddy system. Every hire, I don’t care at what level, should spend their first weeks working on an internal project: building tools for the team, putting together project specs, transferring knowledge from a previous role elsewhere. They’ll learn how to work on your company’s team and be mentored by an experienced leader. That helps people build confidence, it immediately makes them a contributing member of the team and it seeds the personal relationships that are crucial to their happiness at work.
• Create your own superstars. Hire recruiters and scour job sites all day for the perfect employee who may be out there somewhere — or work with someone whose attitude you like and train them to do the job. Nothing says “you’re important to us” like an investment of time and energy and trust. The loyalty you’ll create is going to poach-proof your roster better than most job perks. To my mind, this is a great example of a meaningfully tech-enabled workplace: It’s less about using tech to streamline processes and increase efficiency and promote agility (although all those things are obviously important) and more about using tech to help a person succeed — however that person defines success. It’s important to find out what makes people tick and what drives them. It’s not always about money; it’s also about fulfilment, leadership, pride in what’s built, excitement about working on new things.
• Build a foundation of trust. Treat your co-workers like the adults they are. Who wants to obsess over what time people log on for work, what time they quit for the day or how long their coffee breaks are? I want to build amazing things — not get bogged down in spreadsheets, and I assume that’s what everyone else wants. At Xerris, we’ve recently established an unlimited vacation policy because we want everyone here to have a well-balanced life. We might have to change a few things up as it rolls out, but I really believe the pilot will be successful because it’s built on a results-driven culture of respect and trust that benefits everybody.
• Be available. At work, I live by this rule: I answer every question I’m asked. Always. It’s not just because our work culture is remote by design that I can say my office door is never closed. Anybody, from our most junior or Day 1 hire, can ask me a question or give me an opinion and I will answer that question or have a conversation. I basically live on Slack during my workday and welcome inquiries, jokes, dog pictures, links to interesting articles, etc. I want us to build a company and a culture together.
Developing a sense of belonging has been challenging for everyone during the pandemic lockdown, but I think the companies that have succeeded at it probably have something in common: They trust their employees. For my money, successfully redefining tech-enabled work culture as we’re all “heading back” is going to be less about increasing or refining tech options and more about putting people and personalities first. I’d love to have that conversation with you.