What is Culture to Your Organization?

At PFSbrands we conduct NPS surveys anonymously with our employee owners. We do this NPS survey twice per year and we ask our employee owners two very simple questions: “On a scale from 0 to 10 how likely are you to recommend PFSbrands as a place to work?” and then “Why?”

One of our most common answers to the “why” question is: “I love the culture”. We get answers like: “The culture is great at PFSbrands” or “I have never worked for a company with a culture like this one.”

Recently, the gentleman in our Customer Success Department that collects these NPS results asked me what culture means to me and if culture is different for everyone? Here’s what I wrote him back:

Every company has a culture whether they intend to or not. However, those leaders that focus on making their companies a great place to work, are taking culture to another level.

While I do believe that there are many interpretations of “culture”, I believe there is a universal feeling that it evokes here at PFSbrands: it’s our core values, it’s our atmosphere, it’s how we are perceived from the outside looking in.  As employee owners we are dedicated to our business and it shows in how we treat our co-owners & our customers. It shows in how we approach our daily activities. It shows in how we come to work each day and take pride in what we do.

The leaders within PFSbrands nurture an openness to new ideas and transparency that keeps all employee owners on the same page – striving to reach excellence and achieve goals in our business and in our lives.  The days pass quickly with a “success mentality” and it’s awesome to see people winning every day.

As Simon Sinek says in his book “Why”, every person and every company should work to find their core purpose. For me personally and for PFSbrands, we are united in our core purpose and we consistently seek out people to add to our team that BELIEVE in what we are doing. Our core purpose is “To help others become more successful in work and in life”. When you know your purpose and you surround yourself with people who BELIEVE in the same things you BELIEVE in, you can create a great culture.

Our culture represents our dedication to staying focused on a shared core purpose. Our culture represents our dedication to staying focused on our mission of empowering our employee owners and allowing them the opportunity to build their futures while doing everything possible to help our retailers operate profitable locations. Our culture represents our dedication to working together around our 5 guiding principles.  Our culture represents our dedication to having fun, caring, and holding everyone to high expectations. Our culture revolves around continuous improvement and constantly learning. Our culture revolves around “keeping score” and always striving to win.

One example of our culture was recently shared by our Director of Customer Success,

“We had a customer contact our Customer Success department and speak with our representative, Lesa, because her special needs son saw our cartoon logo on a tractor trailer. He became obsessed with the character and kept asking his mom to go to the Champs Chicken website to look at the logo. He also asked his mom to take him to a Champs Chicken restaurant. She wasn’t sure where the closest Champs Chicken location was so she called to find out. Lesa did a little research and told the mother that closest Champs Chicken was over 100 miles away. The mom sighed and said, “Maybe when we go on our next vacation we’ll try and stop by a Champs Chicken location.”

Once the call ended Lesa took it upon herself to “go the extra mile” and help this mom who really wanted her son to see a Champs Chicken. Lesa grabbed a few of our Champs Chicken shirts from the print shop, wrote a handwritten note addressed to the customer’s son signed by “Champ”, and put it in the mail. A few days later the mom called Lesa back and told her that the gift package made her son’s day and he is more excited than ever to visit a Champs Chicken location!”

Lesa didn’t have to ask permission. She simply knew it was the right thing to do and acted accordingly. We strive to empower our employee owners with this type of mindset and that helps to spread the culture throughout the entire company.

Creating an awesome culture starts with a leadership team that is dedicated to the people. However, growing and sustaining an awesome culture is the responsibility of every single employee that wants to come to work and enjoy it! Unlike other cultures that just “happen”, we “make it happen”!

That’s what culture means to me!

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