Happy Wednesday to everyone tuning in to today’s episode of The Hirewell Update I’m your host, Ryan Brown, Vice President of our Corporate Functions Team, and these are my co hosts. I’m Emily Goor, Director of our Go To Market Recruiting Team, and this down here is Winnie Lou- Good old Winnie. Oh, there she is.
Yeah, and she’s our favorite co host by far, for sure. Before we kick off the show, you can find all of our content at talentinsights.hirewell.com or if you’d like to learn more about Hirewell, our service offerings, check out our website, www.hirewell.com. how are you both? We’re great, right?
She says we’re great. , we’re doing well. How are you doing? All good on my end. Yeah. Nothing to complain about over here, which is great. We’ve got this like final push of really beautiful weather happening. I say final, like it’s going to be over any day now. It’s probably not, but in my mind, summertime shy slowly coming to an end.
Um, but it’s just been gorgeous over here lately. We’re actually kind of the opposite. If you’re in Southern California, sending you strength. We just had, it’s actually better now it’s Wednesday, but starting like last Thursday or Friday through, it was like, Monday was like in the hundreds here every day.
So, uh, yeah, we are still a full blown summer and hanging on to it. Hanging on to it. No sign of fall in SoCal. That’s for sure. That’s for sure. Not at all. Get into this week’s topic because I feel like. I mean, it’s very timely for us. We’re going to fill everybody in obviously on why it’s timely for us. Um, but yeah, excited to get into some talent insights with you.
Yeah, I am too. Um, and you know, am too. Um, and you know, on today’s segment, what we’re going to be talking about is a topic that’s absolutely crucial for any successful organization. And that is workplace culture, to kick us off, I think it’s important for us to just kind of begin with a definition on workplace culture, what it is, it’s a term that gets thrown around quite a bit, but essentially it’s a collection of various things.
Like the values, beliefs, and behaviors that really shape how work gets done in an organization. I often like to think of it as like the personality of a company too. So just like people. Every organization has its own unique culture and it truly can have, and does have a massive impact on everything from employee satisfaction to overall productivity.
You are our resident social committee leader here at Hirewell, which is. Of no surprise to anyone, if you know Emily, but you focus a ton on our culture here. So I feel like you’re the perfect person to talk about this. I sure do. I sure do. I know it’s really important for me. And I love how you describe it as like the personality of a company.
It’s something that just even, I know you said me in general, but our leadership team as a whole, we believe it’s really important, honestly, to our overall success as a company, right? I think. Workplace culture is the backbone of an organization. I mean, cause like people, like we always say people are kind of the backbone, like people contribute so strongly, they make up the culture and the personality of a company.
So it influences everything from how employees interact with each other to how they approach, how they do work every single day. And I think a positive culture fosters things like engagement and motivation and honestly, productivity. And when people feel aligned with theirs, with their company’s values and are treated with respect, they’re honestly more likely to be invested in their roles
and work collaboratively as a group toward common goals. Yeah, I could not agree more with those sentiments. As you know, people, you and I, who focus their careers on really finding talent for other organizations, we know how absolutely vital workplace culture is. When we assess healthy workplace cultures with our clients, we’re looking for things like clear communication, mutual respect, and just that general sense of inclusion.
And when those things are present in those types of environments, we often see the things you just mentioned. High levels of employee engagement, low turnover rates, employees feel valued, like they have opportunities for growth and for development. I think there’s also this strong kind of like alignment between a company’s stated values, but also then their actual practices.
So it’s like they’re walking the talk. But I think typically, you know, those are the types of environments that really attract, new talent, but also do a great job at retaining their current talent too. Yes. Retention, retention, retention. I know we’ve talked about retention a lot this year. There you go.
All comes back. I think on the flip side of that, always got to look at the other side of things. We also keep an eye out for some red flags that might reflect like a company having a problematic culture. So opposite of retention, right? Kind of high employee turnover, frequent conflicts, just a lack of trust are some major indicators.
And I think if employees are disengaged or there’s a sense of like favoritism, those can also be some red flags. I think when there’s like a disconnect between what the company says it stands for and what it actually does. It’s a serious issue, like not only for engaging new talent, but again, retaining current employees.
Totally. I mean, I think in both of the examples we shared, we can see like the strong correlation between workplace culture and retention of employees, employee satisfaction, which all leads to success. success as well. The good news is, although we just listed off some red flags and things that could potentially be problematic.
If an organization is struggling with their culture, there’s actionable steps that can be taken to improve. Yeah, it’s not too late. It’s definitely not too late. It’s never too late. Is it? I don’t know. Probably not. But I think the first step in really helping to kind of assess the current culture is through things like surveys and feedback sessions and just general observation.
From there, I think it’s really important to involve leadership in defining the desired culture of the company and then how to model those values that will support that. As we know, communication is key to everyone needs to be on the same page. We’re talking from the top down, the top up, what the culture should look like, and also how it should be maintained.
It’s more than just saying this is our culture. There are steps and things you have to do to maintain that culture and invest in it too. We’ve also talked in the past too, Em about the investment and training and development and recognizing employees, their efforts and how crucial that can be. But we know that creating a positive culture is certainly an ongoing process.
Some of the things too, I just mentioned Hirewell is actually in the middle of doing. So we just launched our 360 surveys, which we do on an annual basis, which is awesome. And we’re currently going through a pretty big culture building initiative that, Em, you’re actually spearheading Yeah, we’ve done, we’ve done a few things.
And I think you mentioned before, I’m, I guess like head of, or I don’t know, there’s no actual title, but I’m on our social committee and it’s something that’s really important to me. You mentioned, I think something when you were just saying about recognizing employees efforts. So we’ve kicked off like a Hirewellian of the week.
Maybe you’ve seen it on social media. I know we’ve been posting a bunch on Instagram. There’s a highlight reel on our Instagram. If you want to check that out, I think it’s @hirewell.talent. We’ve been recognizing a different employee every week and. I think it’s really fun and we have like cute questionnaires, share pictures of like their families. It’s such an easy way to one, get to know your colleagues and to just do really small thing to recognize what people are doing.
Yeah. Em I totally agree with that. I think it’s been something that the feedback has just been ultimately so positive on in such a great way because, you know, if people have been following us for a long time, we are a 100 percent remote environment. So getting the opportunity to learn more about colleagues that we don’t always get a ton of face to face interaction with is amazing.
And then we also do weekly shout outs across the entire company too. So, we have the opportunity to celebrate successes and wins of other people, which I think also adds quite a bit of value as well. 100 percent people just, it’s so nice to be celebrated. I get it. Like, I think words of affirmation is my love language.
So it’s always fun to see a shout out. And honestly, I think a common theme that you’re going to see in the next couple of minutes of what we share, these things are pretty easy lifts for the most part, right? Some things involve a little bit more investment than others, but in terms of the ask from other people, like that Hirewellian of the week.
It requires people to answer like four questions. Maybe some people to like do a written little testimony of why somebody’s great. It’s super easy and super fun. The other big thing we’re doing right now, I’m obviously so excited and so rah rah about this. I know it’s Wednesday, so we’re nearing the end of a
two week HireWell Olympics. Been so fun. We basically have an event every single day, some competition long events. We split up our entire company into teams, and the teams are totally jumbled. So, I know I’m on the go to market recruiting team. There’s, only one other person. On my Hirewell olympics team, that’s from the go to market recruiting team, so I’ve had the chance to interact with folks from our tech recruiting team, our corporate functions, our industrial team, our growth team, quite frankly, that I have not talked to a ton in the past.
So it’s been really fun. Like we’ve had, I think, you know, again, we’re going to hopefully collect some feedback. Like you said, after the Hirewell olympics, but from what I’ve seen so far, engagement’s been pretty high. Collaboration’s been huge. Like I said, we’re collaborating with folks that we don’t tend to collaborate with, and it’s been fun, you know, kind of working together as a team.
We’re a competitive group, too. I’m not gonna lie. I think that’s why we’re all in this business, isn’t it? Right? There’s a little bit of competitiveness in all of this. So, yeah, it’s been so fun. We’ve done some, I’m trying to think of some of the events that I can share. Like simple things again, think not heavy lift.
So people just like tracking their steps every day. Like the step count has been crazy. Shout out to some people who’ve had like 30, I think the top is like 33,000 steps in a day. God bless. A typing contest. Shout out Kelly 107. No, actually 135 was her best. Right? 135 words per minute. That’s awesome.
And we’re doing it right now, right? Recognition. If they’re watching this, it’s fun. A trivia contest, LinkedIn videos that you’re going to see actually today. I know it’s Wednesday. Some people posted theirs Tuesday. Some are posting today. So just all fun things that have people engaging with one another, working together.
It’s been a little time consuming, maybe, maybe on my end a little bit more than others, you know, definitely on your end. The Olympic committee is doing a great job. But overall not a huge lift and just a couple minutes out of people’s day. I mean, I can speak to this. Because I’ve been a part of it.
It’s been an absolutely amazing initiative. So huge shout out to you, Em. Because I know on the back end, it was quite a big lift for you to put everything together, but so well worth it for the engagement that we’re seeing, the participation, the opportunity to collaborate with others, like you mentioned, as we know,
our leadership team specifically is taking proactive steps to continue enhancing engagement, to fostering team collaboration, and those things are so essential in environments like ours, where we are a 100% remote and we kind of lose out on some of that in person interaction work. You know, maybe in your environment, you might feel like these things are happening a little bit more organically, but in a, an environment like ours, we have to be more intentional about it.
So I think that your idea behind the Hirewell Olympics has just been so creative, so inclusive, and it’s just really impressive to how you’ve been able to just kind of like integrate all of these different things. And it’s been a fun little something for everyone. So I can say too, like the live updates on our internal G chat channels have been so fun. They like all company like G chat updates.
It’s been actually quite entertaining very entertaining and I think a really nice way too to just like kind of get back to some of those more, you know work chats that aren’t necessarily work related. Those things are so important and that’s kind of like the you know, coffee chatter, water cooler chat that you might get when you’re in an office naturally, that again, you have to be really intentional about creating opportunities to do that.
And this has been such a great way for everyone to be connected and to be engaged and all of the different things. So I just think that things like we’re doing with the Hirewell Olympics or other things that organizations may be doing, it’s just so important to create opportunities to foster those connections.
I think it makes such a big difference in cohesion of teams and people really feeling like they’re a part of your company. I think this is just obviously one way that people can consider driving inclusion and engagement, which ultimately all help foster a really positive work environment completely.
And I think, like you said it helps people get to know one another, like those water cooler chats that at least, you know, for us being a remote first company. I used to get a chance to chat with anyone at the company about anything. Oh, what workout are you doing after? Oh, how was your weekend? Oh my gosh.
That picture of your niece and nephew were so cute. Like things that we just, I don’t naturally get to talk to people about. And I think we’ve said this on the show before, like people don’t necessarily have company loyalty. They have people loyalty. So if you can help foster people connections and foster the growth of relationships amongst your employees, that’s going to help with retention.
Right. Because people feel more loyal when they feel connected to the people at a company than just like, wow, I’m so obsessed with selling this product that we sell or, you know, things of that nature. So I think that’s a lot of, I think what I’ve, what our leadership team has taken away is how can we continue to foster connections
of our people, right? I think we do a good job on the team level. And now how can we again, make those connections across teams that people feel connected to the people they work with and therefore connected to the company? Exactly. Yeah. I mean, we’ve always done such a great job on the micro level. Like you mentioned, those teams are different practices because they’re so integrated.
Everyone’s spending so much time working together and collaborating. But the macro level is equally as important and we all work for the same company. So having the opportunity to collaborate and connect and chat and just brainstorm and get creative together. Like we have over the last two weeks has been so much fun and I’m looking forward to whatever’s to come in Q4.
I know there’s going to be another social initiative to come. No pressure. No pressure at all. But we’ll, definitely on that note, maybe our viewers can help , if your company’s doing cool things, especially like, you know, selfishly I’d love some ideas for a remote environment, but I mean, just in general we’d love to hear in the comments what your companies are doing to promote employee engagement.
and just foster relationships amongst your people. It’d be great to hear some ideas, drop them in the comments. We’d love to hear. Absolutely. Couldn’t agree more Em. Well, thanks for all that you do and all that you’ve done to get the Hirewell Olympics off the ground. It’s been such a blast and we appreciate you so much.
I appreciate, I appreciate that. Shout out team nine. We’ve been killing it. It’s been fun. Yeah. So good. So good. Your team just got a gold medal for typing was of no effort on my own because I unfortunately have long fingernails and they slow down your typing so i’m sorry, this is actually my public apology to my team and a huge shout out to them For carrying me through to the gold.
I thank you so much I think that’s a perfect way to end Ryan. Just apologizing for, your long nails. Sometimes you got to sacrifice these things. I’m sure your team understands. It’s okay team 3 She’s got you. Yeah. Well, that’s it. That’s all we’ve got. What do you say? Go ahead. Take us on home. Awesome.
It’s a wrap for this week’s episode of The Hirewell Update. Thank you all so much for joining. As a reminder, you can find all of our content at talentinsights.hirewell.com. Or if you’d like to learn more about higher wall and all of our service offerings, check out our website. It’s www.hirewell.com. I’ll add to just because I mentioned it earlier today. Follow us on Instagram, @higherwell.talent. If you want to check out those Hirewellians of the week. We’re switching up our schedule a bit. We will mostly be going every other week so that we can focus on creating more fabulous, maybe more directed content for you all.
So we’ll be back in a couple of weeks at around noon central. How does that sound?
