The Belonging Bonus

In 2020 our company, CulturePop, created new mobile technology to develop “diversity fitness.” We created an anonymous but highly personalized microlearning system that prompts thought and helps develop inclusion instincts to help any organization grow through the sustained growth of individuals. In essence, CulturePop is a go anywhere “learn on the fly” platform designed to enhance employee engagement in a manner consistent with their need for continued education. Both engagement and education create amazing gains in company culture.

We further learned through our customers that there was an inherent “belonging bonus” that was largely untapped in many of their organizations. The sense of belonging was not limited to simply whether someone felt respected and welcomed (though necessary and valuable), but the belonging bonus was equally driven by other factors. And we learned them through our analytics and sustained surveys to keep people participating.

We learned that organizations achieve a belonging bonus when people feel that they are continually learning and that they are part of a team. The belonging bonus is also enhanced when people see a future for themselves, feel they are succeeding, and recognize the values of their organization as similar to their own.

So herein lies the greater opportunity: how do we use technology to grow the belonging bonus of any organization, no matter where employees are, and no matter who they are?

Together with a distributed team of leaders, technologists and data scientists, we will push the boundaries of what belonging means and why it is the essence of productivity, innovation, and retention for organizations today and tomorrow.

Let’s code culture, and let’s make any culture pop! The science of belonging is much more powerful than we know.

Drew Bartkiewicz, Co-founder, CulturePop