For most employees, company culture matters more than their paycheck. In a recent survey from Glassdoor, 77 percent of adults said they consider a company’s culture before applying for a role — and when it comes to job satisfaction, 56 percent rank company culture over salary.
Fostering a healthy culture at work is critical to both attracting top talent and retaining them. Highly engaged employees are 17 percent more productive on average than their less engaged colleagues, according to a Gallup study. In other words, investing in company culture means a direct investment in hiring an excellent team and motivating them to do great work in the long term.
Kate Matsudaira, vice president of technology at SoFi, knows firsthand the impact of a healthy work environment on team performance: “Having spent some of my career at Google, I would agree with the research that psychological safety is one of the most important qualities of high-performing teams.”
And at SoFi, Kate and her team have designed their own approach to bringing out the best in their teammates — one with recognition, celebration and teamwork at its core.
Built In San Francisco caught up with Matsudaira to learn the secrets behind SoFi’s company culture, including what strategies she uses to inspire her team.
SoFi is fintech company transforming the industry by creating financial products that help people reach financial independence to realize their ambitions.
How do you define a good team culture? What are some ways you and your team bring those characteristics or values to life?
The best teams are the ones that are much greater — 10 or 100 times — than the sum of their parts. As a leader, you have to cultivate trust and collaboration across your leaders and their teams. I’ve done this by fostering a “we are all in this together” mentality and creating open communication that is inclusive of all opinions and perspectives.
As a leader, this practice needs to be woven into everything you do — from how you recognize and reward your people, how you hold your teams accountable, how you capture feedback and even the way you set up agendas in team meetings. You have to be deliberate and purposeful to reinforce teamwork and trust.
How do you ensure members of your team continue to feel challenged, engaged and excited by the work they’re doing?
Everyone has different goals and motivations. As a leader, you need to understand what makes each person tick and tailor your approach accordingly. I always push my teams to approach every opportunity with a growth mindset: there is always more to learn and improve.
You have to be deliberate and purposeful to reinforce teamwork and trust.”
But when you think of the times you had the most fun at work, most people tend to recall a story where they had to achieve something great with their peers. As such, I always look to create opportunities for people to band together to deliver something. I tell my leaders there is power in assigning a name to projects or initiatives because it gives teams something to rally around. For example, instead of looking at an iterative list of features or tasks — which might be incremental and less glamorous — group them under a “Project Superstar,” and then people can get excited and rally behind a big launch, milestones and an impact versus the laundry list of items.
Do you have any unique team celebrations, traditions or rituals to celebrate successes?
As leaders, we never give enough praise. I try to make a point of including celebrations and recognition in every org communication, all-hands and team meeting. I even set a reminder on my calendar every Friday to send a note of thanks or appreciation to someone in our company, and I encourage my leaders to do the same.
The heartfelt, specific examples given in a timely manner tend to carry so much more weight than the one or two times per year performance feedback conversation. Expressing timely gratitude more often is one of our superpowers as leaders and something we could all do more of.
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