Best known as the “king of rock ‘n’ roll,” Elvis Presley once used a simple yet powerful metaphor to describe personal morals.
“Values are like fingerprints,” Presley said. “Nobody’s are the same, but you leave 'em all over everything you do.”
At these four Chicago companies, teams have developed standout values that they strive toward daily. While their specific values may be unique — ranging from acting authentically and embracing challenges to “making mom proud” and “getting shit done” — they all serve a similar purpose: to ensure that employees perform at their best, with kindness, innovation and integrity at the forefront.
Across projects and departments, traces of these positive principles are evident in every employee exchange. Teams celebrate their colleagues and hold each other accountable through regular rituals, including awards, feedback sessions and client surveys.
Leaders from Avant, Origami Risk, Box and Crafty sat down with Built In Chicago to share how they embody their organizational values while empowering fellow employees to leave their own lasting marks.
Avant improves the borrowing experience for middle-income customers with financial tools ranging from credit cards to loans.
What are the values that drive Avant’s culture? Why are those values important?
We have five values that guide and inform our behaviors as Avantees. The first is authenticity; we show up to work as our whole selves and make sure others can too. Second is collaboration; we can only succeed when we do so as a team. Third is problem-solving; the harder the problem, the more satisfying the solution. Fourth is the customer; we are all owners of the customer experience. Finally, the fifth value is initiative; we plan, adapt and “get sh!t done.”
Avant has always been a values-driven organization that is united around the idea of moving the lives of everyday people financially forward. We launched the company a little more than a decade ago. As we approached our 10-year anniversary, we took the opportunity to rethink our company values. It is important to us that we evolve our values as the company evolves, in order to ensure these are not just words but actions that we actually live and rally around.
Our values were created through an employee feedback process that incorporated thoughts from Avantees. We learned there were values that most people were already holding themselves accountable to, so we codified them into our five values.
What are some steps that you take to stay true to those values?
Our values are not forced because they were informed by Avantees. They’re embedded in our culture and operating behaviors.
Beyond that, Avantees nominate coworkers who they see going above and beyond in their adherence to our values for “Avant Values Awards,” which are presented at quarterly company town halls. Employees are also encouraged to give each other values-based feedback and recognition.
The reality is that we all have days or instances when we might not live our values in the moment, but our culture empowers and encourages everyone to provide feedback on that. It makes us stronger as a group.
We also recently renovated a new office space in Chicago’s Merchandise Mart that was designed with our values in mind. For example, it was critical that our new space included parents’ rooms, a multi-faith room and everything that Avantees need to come to work and still live their “authenticity” value. We designed spaces for personal focus time and groups, with special attention given to the way we connect with our remote workforce to promote our “collaboration” value.
Someone who adapts, prioritizes the customer, brings their best self and allows others to do the same shows that they are aligned with our culture and company values.”
What are some traits that you look for in employees that indicate their values align with yours?
Our culture has evolved over the 10-plus years since Avant was founded, but we have always looked for people who embrace challenges and aren’t afraid to roll up their sleeves and solve problems. Great ideas can come from anywhere, and we want to empower people to bring their best ideas to the table.
As with any organization, we have had highs and lows over the years; but when Avantees take ownership of solutions, we solve the problems, no matter how complex. Our workplace is a uniquely dynamic environment.
It might be easy to be a good coworker when things are going great, but we take notice of how people respond when they’re up against challenges or adversity. Someone who adapts, prioritizes the customer, brings their best self and allows others to do the same shows that they are aligned with our culture and company values.
Origami Risk is SaaS provider for risk management, insurance, safety and compliance.
What are the values that drive Origami Risk’s culture? Why are those values important to your business?
Origami has three core values — to prioritize client trust and success, innovate with an entrepreneurial spirit and collaborate and win as a team.
Since our founding in 2009, these values describe what it means to be an “Origamian.” We are committed to ensuring they endure, even as market conditions change. These values are vital to maintain consistency and perform with the highest standards. They are particularly useful when we consider bringing on new colleagues, experience challenges during a project, evaluate performance and encounter ambiguous choices.
We believe our colleagues and clients, who helped us draft and codify these values, are inspired by our consistent adherence to living our values every day.
Prioritize client trust and success, innovate with an entrepreneurial spirit and collaborate and win as a team.”
What are some steps you take to stay true to those values?
Origami’s values are deeply embedded in how we do business. Our values and the practices that demonstrate them are key in all phases of the employee experience, starting with interviews and continuing through onboarding, ongoing performance management and career development.
We also share our values with clients throughout the journey they take with us. This often begins with prospective customers speaking with other clients before they interact directly with Origami. We’ve been told frequently by clients that our values are among the most important and consistent parts of our reputation.
Beyond this, values are a consistent theme in our initial interactions with clients in our marketing and response materials. When clients select Origami, we begin our collaborations with a reminder of these values. As our relationships with clients mature, values are key to our ongoing stewardship and annual client surveys.
In each of these critical phases, team members are evaluated and encouraged to follow these practices and values in their daily efforts with other colleagues and clients.
What are some traits that you look for in employees that indicate their values align with yours?
One of the key aspects of our values is the multiple layers they embody, which we expect colleagues to exhibit. Our colleagues are wickedly smart and have high standards. We challenge each other with an eagerness to learn, share knowledge and back each other up. We believe it’s important to detail these practices for clarity and common standards.
Box runs a single platform for organizations to manage the content lifecycle, work securely from anywhere and integrate apps.
What are the values that drive Box’s culture? Why are those values important to your business?
We have seven company values at Box. First, we blow our customers’ minds. Second, we take risks, fail fast and GSD. Third, multiply that by 10! Fourth, we believe in being an owner; it’s your company. Fifth, bring your (insert self) to work every day. Sixth, be candid and assume good intent. Finally, make mom proud.
These values are important to us because they are simple and represented in our personal and professional lives. As a company, we believe in these values and embody them in our everyday lives. These values bestow a company bond and a level of trust where people can be transparent and “bring our own self to work every day” without judgment.
What are some steps you take to stay true to those values?
As a leader, I take steps to stay true to the Box value of “be candid.” I do this by providing coaching to my team in a timely manner. Expressing feedback immediately helps everyone stay aligned. We learn, make changes right away and continue to grow within our roles. I believe it eliminates uncertainty and builds trust quickly among the team.
When dealing with a problem, I encourage myself and my team to take a step back and assess the situation before responding, which embodies “assuming good intent.” Just allowing for extra thought and time eases the glass-half-empty mentality and helps us learn or uncover something new. We all become better people and colleagues by making this a habit.
My favorite trait — probably because I’m a mother myself — is being a person that is always thinking about ‘making mom proud.’”
What are some traits that you look for in employees that indicate their values align with yours?
One trait I look for in employees is a willingness to work on a team. Deals are not done alone, and it definitely takes a village. Being curious and wanting to learn from others’ successes and how they overcame obstacles are important qualities; they show that employees want to be better and are willing to learn.
Lastly, my favorite trait — probably because I’m a mother myself — is being a person that is always thinking about “making mom proud.” This is an important trait because it allows you to be respected, have respect for others and represent Box in the best possible way.
Crafty offers a centralized platform for companies to manage food, beverage and supplies for their teams.
What are the values that drive Crafty’s culture? Why are those values important to your business?
Crafty has five core values: We obsess over the client, we are a team, we explore different perspectives, we embrace challenges and we build, then rebuild.
These values are the driving force behind our culture. With these values leading the way, we have created a safe space for our team members to be themselves, try new things and fail, stay humble and work together as a team in an ego-less environment. This gives our clients, partners and, last but not least, each other the best experience possible.
With these values leading the way, we have created a safe space for our team members to be themselves.”
What are some steps that you take to stay true to those values?
On a company level, we talk about our values a lot. At our quarterly all-company meetings, we give out “Value Awards.” We select five winners each quarter, one for each of our core values. The winners are chosen based on peer and leader nominations, which require examples of how the nominee displays the particular values.
We make sure to not only discuss our values on a company level but also on a team level. Our field operations team makes up about half of our company’s headcount and provides the Crafty experience to our clients onsite.
On this team, we align each quantitative and qualitative measurement for performance to our core values. As a result, team members are able to highlight our values through their work in client spaces and tie back what they are doing and why to our core values.
What are some traits that you look for in employees that indicate their values align with yours?
Asking a lot of questions during the interview and onboarding stage is always a great sign. Those are the folks who will challenge us to live up to our “build and rebuild” and “explore different perspectives” values. We are all perpetual learners on our team, and we love to see someone who dives right in and isn't afraid to help us continue to explore why we do things the way we do.
Folks who display a high level of empathy are also often our most successful team members. Those who can both be empathetic and hold themselves and their teams accountable tend to be the people who live out the “we are a team” and “we obsess over the client” values.
We are a startup, so we look for folks with a track record of taking on responsibilities outside of their day to day. When we're praising folks for “embracing challenges,” it's usually because they stepped in to solve a problem that another team was stuck on.
