Nanit CEO Sarah Dorsett with her three children.
Used with permission from Sarah Dorsett
Company culture matters. Culture connects employees to the mission, vision, and values of an organization. Culture drives how employees interact and engage with their teams, their managers, and their clients. Yet, too often, organizations feel that company culture is implied or leave it to develop on its own.
Instead, as we now enter the next phase of work, it is more important to be intentional about building a strong company culture. We are all currently somewhere between pre-pandemic life and the future of work. This phase is still messy and filled with uncertainty. At the same time, employee expectations are high. 2020 gave rise to both the pandemic and social justice movements that pushed companies and their leaders to do more, to say more, and to demonstrate to employees that they care.
Just as companies evaluate and pivot their business models, company culture needs to be assessed. How will your company culture adapt and evolve? Has your organization recommitted or shifted their mission, vision, and values? Most importantly, are your managers on board, and do they have the skills and resources to practice what you preach as an organization?
Diving into and assessing these questions can be the difference between a weak company culture and a strong one. For example, an employee at a prominent consulting firm recently shared that while the company leadership was consistently sending out messages encouraging individuals to focus on wellness and providing them with resources, her own manager had not once asked how she was doing throughout the course of the last year. In addition, as she plans for upcoming parental leave, she has regularly been met with quizzical looks and shock from colleagues when sharing that she planned to utilize the full leave time provided by her organization. So while the parental leave policy and the organization’s communication about wellness seem to promote employee wellbeing, the day-to-day interactions with leaders set a very different tone and continue to promote a weak culture.
On the flip side, when leaders align with and model company culture, the results often follow. Sarah Dorsett, CEO of Nanit, joined the organization with the intention of living the company mission. While Nanit is known for their baby monitor and innovative products to improve babies’ sleep, their mission is to support the journey of parenting. As a CEO and a mother, Dorsett knew it was important to live Nanit’s company mission and culture by modeling her own journey as a working parent and by supporting their clients and their employees.
When Dorsett was brought in to lead the organization, she spent time getting to know her team, establishing trust, and opening up a dialog for ongoing communication. Yet, when the pandemic struck and the team went fully remote, she recognized how critical it became to be intentional and communicate. She started to ask herself and her team: how do we stay connected, how can we support parents (including ourselves), how do we live true to our brand each and every day?
What came out of those discussions was a recognition that everyone needs something different, but we all need to be empowered to have open, healthy conversations. The team at Nanit built regular connection points, more consistent communication from leadership, and feedback loops for added transparency.
The results? The team launched a new product, on time, while fully remote and doubled their business over the previous year.
Company culture matters. Leaders have an opportunity to re-align with their company mission and values, to choose to be transparent, and to communicate. Employees value culture now more than ever amidst such uncertainty. Leaders have an opportunity to re-engage their teams and prioritize company cultures that allow employees to feel supported and thrive.
