Bob’s Ramble: Work Culture – Is It Important?

One of the most interesting things about an organization’s culture is that it is very difficult for most people involved in it to describe. Think about the culture at your place of work. Can you describe it? I can almost see your eyes roll, which leads me to the question, “Does culture really matter?”

I think the answer is yes. I’m sure we can all agree that you can get a sense of an organization’s culture by dealing directly with it. We know which companies are driven by customer service and which are not. We can usually tell by employee attitudes whether their work environment is fun, light, stressful or dark.

At Invoice Cloud, we try to set up simple operating guidelines to help steer all employees (now at 125 strong) towards a likeminded set of principles. To make them easy to remember, our operating guidelines are abbreviated with the letters NOISERC:

  • ✓ No sidelines – we are all on the same field of play so let’s help each other do better
  • ✓ Open candid dialog – no hidden agendas, be direct and honest internally and externally
  • ✓ Integrity – tell the truth all the time, set expectations that can be met, be honest about mistakes
  • ✓ Sense of urgency – attack the big problems with vigor, don’t push the hard stuff down the road
  • ✓ Excellence – while we don’t expect perfection, we strive for excellence in our products, services and communications
  • ✓ Respect – for clients and their customers, for partners, for colleagues, for competitors, and for all people
  • ✓Charity – we encourage our employees to find ways to give back

Integrity is central to these guidelines. As a growth-oriented company, we need to constantly remind ourselves that growth without integrity is not positive growth. We need to be truthful, honest and respectful with all of our dealings. When we slip on this or other guidelines (and it happens) we rely on each other to get us back on track.

When I think about how to define the Invoice Cloud culture, I find it difficult to describe. If I had to put words around it, they would be “team, collaboration, winning, supporting.” Hope you are enjoying your summer!

Comments or suggestions? Or, want to discuss an idea? bbennett@invoicecloud.net