If cultures like Rackspace, Zappos, and Quicken Loans speak to you, we may be corporate culture soul mates. To me, the best cultures are the ones created to embrace their fun sides like these companies.
Fun at Work Is Key to Decreasing Employee Disengagement
Fun doesn’t necessarily mean booze combined with getting hit in the head with Nerf balls while trying to work. Fun means being allowed to be your whole self at work. Companies with great cultures appreciate the sparkly, silly, sometimes messy personalities that make their cultures more fun than a Grumpy Cat meme.
Having Fun as a Corporate Culture Value
If you think Zappos is at the top of the culture game, one of the key components to marketing their culture is the core value “Create fun and a little weirdness.” Zappos expands on this value, “We don’t want to become one of those big companies that feels corporate and boring. We want to be able to laugh at ourselves.” Fun, as defined by Zappos means people are allowed to bring their whole selves to work and when people do this, that’s when the magic happens. This permeates throughout the culture. With stats showing over half of the American working population disengaged at work, Zappos created a P.E.A.C.E. (Programs, Events, Activities, Charity, and Engagement) team. Engagement is the theme behind everything the P.E.A.C.E. team does. The team supports fun and engaging opportunities for people to explore their individual passions.
Get Paid to be the Director of Fun
Working in a small team requires someone who is open to learning, as job descriptions can change faster than your Facebook newsfeed. If you are startup company that isn’t comfortable eliminating job titles altogether, consider having broader job title names. For example, instead of hiring an HR Coordinator with the status quo job description, think about the power of having a job title like the Director of Fun. What would be included in the job description? This basics of the coordinator role combined with much-needed startup help like supporting office culture, being the face of culture, and touching a bit of everything that goes on. By expanding the job title, you are going to attract candidates that love being able to create a job that fits their personality and the company culture.
Ways to Show off Your Fun Culture
Do candidates still ask what it’s like to work at your company? Tony Hsieh said it best, “Your culture is your brand.” Consider putting your culture in the spotlight, starring your best asset… your people. Here are ways companies with great culture show off their fun sides.
- Employee Baby Pictures – Check out DoSomething.org where they have their people’s baby pictures in lieu of the standard suit and tie pic. Cuteness overload!
- Day in the Life – If you have great culture, your people are already showcasing it on social media for you. Check out how Clearlink takes their people’s vids and puts them on their website for potential candidates to view. Like what you see? Then the Clearlink culture would be a good fit.
- Vine Videos – Kids these days are getting their 6 seconds of fame on Vine and this level of stardom has even taken some Viners to the Grammy’s. You may have a famous Viner on your team that you don’t even know about. Check out the way startup Niche collaborates with one of their employee’s, Robby Ayala, who has 2.5 million Vine followers.
Personally, I’m drawn to company culture that isn’t beige, boring, or bland. Why? Because I’m not! I know that the best part of me is my hot mess self that occasionally spills red wine all over my white shirt. I want to work with company that appreciates my stains as much as my brains. How do you see fun creeping into office life? Holla!
