What’s Your Flavor?

Like It, Love it Or Gotta Have It?  If you’ve ever made a trip to Cold-Stone Creamery you are certainly familiar with those choices.  In fact, who doesn’t LOVE ice cream???  And, as odd as it may sound- ice cream was recently used as an analogy to describe a company’s culture during our last Roundtable with Maria Utagawa.  I had never thought of it that way- but it makes perfect sense.  Culture is like ice cream; you have to have a taste for it.  And everyone has a different preference, whether it‘s chocolate, vanilla or even better, and my personal choice, butter pecan.  It’s a collection of elements. It’s energy, a vibe.  Think about it; anytime you walk into an office whether you are interviewing with the company, or visiting a potential client you get a certain feeling.  And much of your decision on whether you like or dislike the company is based on those initial feelings.

Maria highlighted some great examples of companies in today’s marketplace that are doing it right.  Take Zappos.com for instance.  They sell thousands of shoes online!  And the best part- if they don’t fit or you don’t like them, you have up to ONE YEAR to return them.  How great is that?  Beyond their great shoe selection they care about their employees, and the CEO of the company has taken great strides to be sure his company is at the top of the “best places to work” list!

Take for example their employee handbook.  It’s very unique.  Instead of filling it with the standard rules and regulations mandated by the company executives, it’s filled with testimonials of actual employees of Zappos.  There are pages and pages of real people talking about what makes the company so great and why they LOVE working for the CEO.  It’s a simple, yet powerful concept, which we can all learn from.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFyW5s_7ZWc&feature=player_embedded#]

What makes a company’s culture like Zappos’ successful is instilling the same values, ethics and expectations for both your employees and your customers.

Today, more than ever, company culture is critical not only for attracting new talent, but also for retaining your employees.  If you are working for a company that could use some improvement, now is the perfect time to make those changes.

If you missed our Renaissance Roundtable series last week, you missed out!  Maria Utawaga, an HR Consultant, shared the above concepts with us and helped us understand the power of company culture.  Don’t miss the next Roundtable event scheduled for Thursday, December 10^th.  Sharon Cottor will be with us to discuss how to effectively handle difficult conversations in the workplace.  Please sign up for our newsletter to receive an invitation!

Share This