A Guide to Corporate Culture: 6 Examples

When you think of good company culture, you may picture fancy office setups, free coffee, or wellness perks. 

We’re here to tell you that company culture is a lot more than office foosball tables and catered lunches! It’s how individuals interact, how managers work with their employees, and how customers and other stakeholders are treated. Your company’s culture can be its biggest asset or its greatest liability. 

Keep reading to learn about company culture and why it’s important, see how poor company culture negatively impacts employees, view six examples of strong company culture, and explore ways you can develop a great culture at your organization today. 

• What is company culture?
• The effects of poor corporate culture
• 5 ways to develop a good corporate culture
• 6 examples of good corporate culture

What is company culture?

Company culture refers to the shared beliefs, values, standards, attitudes, and behaviors in a workplace. These beliefs define the day-to-day atmosphere at the company and resonate at all levels of the business—from interns to executives. A company’s culture can impact everything from important business decisions to the energy in the lunchroom. 

Having a strong company culture is vital because it can influence employee morale and impact how leaders make hiring decisions. Some words that are often used to describe good company culture include motivating, engaging, nurturing, collaborative, and friendly. 

The effects of poor corporate culture 

Poor corporate culture occurs when an organization lacks adequate leadership, is overly competitive, or is ridden with poor communication. If your business has a reputation for having a poor company culture, it may deter candidates from applying for vacant roles. It can also directly impact hiring and retention. Nowadays, prospective hires have access to plenty of company reviews; negative ones may discourage job hunters from pursuing opportunities within your company, and they may even spread this information to others. Employees who witness poor company culture first-hand are less engaged, less receptive to feedback, and less productive overall. 

5 ways to develop a good corporate culture 

• Gather employee feedback
• Set guidelines
• Avoid creating silos
• Set clear goals
• Establish an internal communication plan

1Gather employee feedback

If you want to develop a strong corporate culture, begin by gathering employee feedback. During each meeting, ask for positive and constructive feedback on ideas, projects, and day-to-day operations within the company. Incorporate opportunities for teammates to give feedback into your team’s day-to-day experience as well. Send surveys that ask employees what they would change about the company and create a psychologically safe environment for them to give their thoughts honestly. 

Did you know that Fellow can enable your team to share real-time feedback on meetings, projects, and performance? Our 500+ pre-built templates can also help you easily create a feedback request for your employees! 

2Set guidelines

When trying to build a strong company culture, express your goals through written values, beliefs, and guides for employees to digest. New employees should be able to easily learn what values the company promotes and how they embody these values in their day-to-day work. For example, all Fellow employees have access to an e-book that sets expectations on how employees should behave at work to maximize efficiency and create a positive culture. 

Check out the e-book Meeting Guidelines for High-Performing Organizations to see how you can transform the corporate culture at your company for the better!

3Avoid creating silos

Knowledge silos occur when information, skills, and knowledge aren’t shared across a company. Employees at companies with silos often do unnecessary or misaligned work, leading to frustration and confusion. Avoid silos in the workplace by creating systems and processes that prioritize knowledge sharing; doing so will foster a culture of collaboration that keeps everyone at your company informed. 

4Set clear goals 

Setting goals as a team, department, and company will lead to engaged, inspired, and collaborative employees. Stay on top of team goals by recording, defining, and tracking progress towards your objectives in Fellow. Our tool makes it easy to define a time period, add team objectives, specify key results, and review progress during team meetings. 

5Establish an internal communication plan 

Great communication helps individuals and teams reduce misunderstandings and develop strong relationships with one another. When developing your company culture, create an internal communication plan that keeps everyone on the same page about business goals. Get creative and try sending an internal newsletter or creating an organization-wide app for maximum engagement! 

6 examples of good corporate culture 

• Fellow 
• Zoom
• ServiceNow
• Hireology
• Evive
• Tala

1Fellow

Fellow is more than just a meeting tool; it’s where teams gather to have insightful meetings and 1:1s, fostering collaboration and mutual accountability. By allowing teams to plan collaborative agendas in advance, Fellow reduces meeting anxiety and ensures everyone is well-prepared, leading to richer conversations.

No more unproductive or aimless meetings, which is a source of frustration for many! Centralized documentation of meeting notes and decisions ensures transparency, while templates for recurring meetings bring consistency, ensuring everyone is aligned and informed.

Fellow’s “Meeting Guidelines for High Performing Organizations” e-book offers a window into best practices, allowing teams to integrate proven strategies into their routines. In essence, Fellow provides the infrastructure for meaningful conversations, transparent decision-making, and robust interpersonal relationships, all vital components of a thriving corporate culture.

2Zoom

Zoom is a company that embodies good corporate culture. Based on employee data submitted to the workplace culture and compensation monitoring site Comparably between 2019 and 2020, the video conferencing and communications platform ranked as the top company with the happiest employees. It was also ranked fourth among companies where people feel most satisfied with their compensation. 

During a period of exponential growth in 2020, Zoom prioritized employee happiness. The company focuses its company culture on a single value: care. They encourage employees to care for their community, customers, teammates, and themselves above all else. This value is personified by Zoom’s chief executive officer (CEO), Eric S. Yuan, who founded the company with the intent of creating a place where employees would want to work for decades. 

3ServiceNow

ServiceNow is a cloud-based platform to help companies digitize and unify their workflows. With tens of thousands of employees, the company is known for its excellent company culture. ServiceNow leads with flexibility and offers hybrid options for employees who want to work in the office and from home. 

In 2020, the company embraced remote work, transferred all employees online swiftly, and offered virtual team builders like HIIT and yoga classes, socials and quizzes, and educational sessions on topics like how to be productive from home and how to manage anxiety. In a 2020 blog post, the ServiceNow team expressed that keeping initiatives running during troubling times made work more accessible and brought their team together in unimaginable ways. 

4Hireology

Hireology is a hiring and human resources platform that strives to help businesses attract and retain top talent and empowers organizations to build great teams. The company offers a top-notch remote work environment attributable to a system they created that equips teammates with everything they need to succeed. Because Hireology understands the importance of compassion and stellar communication, the organization also implemented empathy exercises where employees have an opportunity to swap positions for a few hours to help individuals understand the demands of different roles. 

5Evive

Evive is a platform that uses data to create employee profiles that enable teams to send well-crafted messages to prospects at the right time. Beyond its services, the company is known for its positive company culture. Evive wants its people to support it in its mission to create a better world and impact the lives of others. The company also has a ‘going green’ initiative to reduce its environmental footprint and supports employees who choose to volunteer at local organizations like the Chicago Food Depository. 

6Tala 

Tala is a fintech company that offers financial services to help underserved populations save and grow their money. The company claims to be building the world’s most accessible financial services via advanced data science and machine learning. Tala’s mission is to improve the financial lives of millions of people in developing countries. Progress toward this objective is made in part due to the company’s excellent company culture. 

The company created a culture that reflects its mission by prioritizing equity and diversity and representing its customer base internally. Tala hires financial experts from a range of backgrounds and experiences, which allows the company to serve customers around the world. 

Parting advice 

You can’t fake a great company culture. Whether you’re managing a team or leading an entire company, prioritizing culture is a must. Companies with a robust culture have higher employee engagement rates and make everyone feel connected to the organization’s mission. 

If you’re looking to improve your own company’s corporate culture, look no further than our six examples of businesses with thriving cultures and five tips on how to develop your organization’s culture today.