If your company does not have a strong internal culture, you are failing. Period.
Because if people aren't happy, if they are constantly thinking about leaving, the work they produce will reflect that. And in turn, your company's production will reflect that. As simple as that. And I'm baffled that more people don't understand this.
Because the truth is that companies lie.
I like to tell people that I am an Executive Director motivated by Human Resources. It is the best way to communicate to people my strong commitment to that opening statement. My agency, VaynerMedia, has gone from 20 employees to over 500 in the last 40 months, and in that period, preserving culture has been a huge priority for me. I didn't want to become what I had seen become many other companies, a place for unhappy minds.
Because the truth is that companies lie. It's easy to say,"I care about my employees." Extremely easy, actually. I bet you're articulating the words as you read this. But it's actually a lot harder to do than say. So, many companies take the easy way out. They talk and talk and talk and talk about the benefits of working for them, but it's all in words. At the time of truth, nothing can happen without someone first sitting down and saying,"Let's do this. At the end of the day, do you want it to stay in words, or do you really want to live it?
There are many ways in which VaynerMedia has been able to maintain such a strong sense of culture, and I have to see in some but certainly not all. I made some key decisions from the start, set standards that I wasn't going to change at all, to make sure we were getting off on the right foot.
But there is one fundamental aspect I always recommend to any Executive Director, leader or boss. It has to do with hiring and firing.
Too many companies base their hiring and firing decisions on money. For example:"Hey, we have a budget to hire another designer. Let's hire him." It becomes a simple financial transaction, with which I fundamentally disagree.
Why is that?
Because hiring and firing are emotional.
You're dealing with people, not contracts. Treating the possibility of hiring a candidate as a financial or investment return is the wrong way to approach the situation. You have to consider the emotional side of this action. Is this decision going to bring anything to the collective community? If I fire someone who is very popular internally because they have a great gift of people, will I hurt everyone else? Can I push this person in another direction to help them stay?
Or, even: Can I help you get another job outside the company within 60 days, instead of firing you in one day? That costs me a lot more money, but it does a lot more in the company culture.
Never underestimate what a great culture can do. You may think that incredible projects and awards and praise are the result of hard work, or having the right people working as a team, or a great leader. It's all that, too, of course. But in truth, people need to be happy where they are. And that starts, ends and always has to do with who you hire, and how people leave your company.