Company culture is a mix of values, ethics, and goals which a company follows and how conducive and open does it make the environment for its employees. Some companies follow a traditional and formal style of management while others have a more participatory culture where team effort is what counts. Some companies have an even more casual work culture or company culture with minimum restrictions.
Let us take Google as an example. It consistently gets counted among the companies with best company culture. "Employees are encouraged to be productive without overexerting themselves. We’re encouraged to take our vacation," said Google employees when describing what do they like about the company’s culture to Forbes in Dec, 2018.
So, all in all, a well-suited company culture is the one that matches well with your lifestyle, values, and strengths. Taking up a new job without paying heed to the company culture is a way to slow professional suicide. Sooner or later, fitting in and getting understood will be difficult and this will hamper your productivity. Hence, before accepting an offer letter, it is important to ensure that the industry and job-role are situated in the context of a work culture that suits you.
So, how do you assess the work culture of a company? Well! Here are a few tips to do this.
- Reviews on Glassdoor and Google
Thanks to Glassdoor’s ‘go anonymous’ option, employees or ex-employees can write reviews honestly and without any fear about any adverse impact on their professional journey. So, check these reviews to find out how the management treats it employees, what is a typical day like, is an employee’s time respected, prospects and timeline of appraisal and promotion, and many more details. Similarly, you can check reviews on Google too. While negative reviews do raise a red flag, no reviews or too many positive or negative reviews under unusual names should also raise concerns.
- Publications
Reputed publications like The Entrepreneur, Business Insider, and Fortune publish annual list of the best companies. The companies are ranked on the basis of employees’ responses on their experiences in the company in terms of work experience, opportunities for realisation of potential, work-life balance, financial satisfaction etc. You may also check listings released by Linkedin and Glassdoor. For a more narrowed down analysis, you may check country and industry-specific magazines too. For example, in 2013, Sapient was ranked among the top 10 IT companies in India to work for. Similarly, in 2015, Information Technology and Communications magazine Dataquest ranked Sapient among the top 100 IT companies in India. So, if an employee has got a job offer, he or she may check the company’s rank in these reputed magazines before accepting the offer letter from Sapient.
- Ask Around
Not all companies get listed in these prominent publications but that does not mean all unlisted companies have a questionable work culture. The surest way to get a feedback on a company’s work culture is to ask directly from ex-employees or employees at present (expect a more honest answer from the former). This is one step that you should follow no matter whether the company is listed or unlisted.
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