More Than Just Values
One of the things that initially attracted me to working at Global App Testing and moving approximately 4,800 miles from Seattle to London was a set of cultural values. It seems trite in today’s business world that someone would decide to join a company based on their values since, based on what most people write, it appears cultural values are simply vapourware buzzwords. And, to be completely honest, it was what I was initially expecting when they were introduced during the interview process. However, I soon learned that these weren’t merely nice things that we say to get people hooked into working here – they are practised every single day.
The first tip that they were something quite important to the core of the business came in the second round of interviews where again I was walked through each of the values. It was important to the process that I understood, agreed and even liked the values because they were going to become a major part of my life if I agreed to take the jump.
Up to this point in my career, I had never experienced such a sharp and clear approach to a value system that was ingrained in the company.
Lots of companies have values, mission statements, visions, goals and such but how many actively encourage them to be lived every day? Since joining Global App Testing, I’ve seen them used every day and use them as a guiding point for all my actions. According to SmallBusiness.co.uk, 52% of UK professionals consider company values as a deal-breaker when choosing a company so it's pretty evident how important they are to many people.
Let’s explore our values in greater detail:
Vision
We have a company vision and we focus on heading towards it every day. But, ultimately, it’s more important for an individual to have a vision for themselves. The clearer a person’s vision for themselves, the easier it is for them to understand why they are doing the thing they are doing.
We work with our team to understand their personal visions, departmental and company visions.
Proactive Learning
Everyone in this company loves learning. If you don’t like learning you will join Global App Testing and feel that everybody is trying to be better than you. The truth is they are trying to be better than themselves. Understanding your vision for yourself helps us focus your learning into the direction that will lead you to your vision.
Trust Bar
Consider the following: if I trust you completely, then I require no explanation or communication of your actions whatsoever, because I know that whatever you are doing is in my best interests. On the other hand, if I don’t trust you at all, then no amount of talking, explaining or reasoning will have any effect on me, because I do not trust that you are telling me the truth.
When you join the company you have a neutral trust bar – this is intangible. Delivering on your promises and producing high quality work increases your trust bar – and vice versa, your trust bar decreases with not delivering on your promises and producing a low quality of work. The instances where we’ve let go of people are when their trust bar has dropped.
The trust bar is not just between you and your line manager – it includes departments and everyone around us, even our customers. We vocalise it to help everyone become aware of it.
Trust is fundamental to success.
Important over urgent
A lot of people work hard but not many people are consistently working in the right direction. It’s easy to focus your attention on urgent activities but you’ll realise in the long run that most of these aren’t making a real difference. We’re not saying don’t do urgent tasks (everybody must) – we’re saying consistently suppress urgency to focus on activities that are important.
Going the extra mile as a team
Going the extra mile means the rendering of more and better service than that for which one is paid, and giving it in a positive mental attitude. It is a state of mind (rather than actionable steps), so it is a part of everything you do.
In our company, never let anyone go the extra mile alone. If you see someone going the extra mile, by e.g. staying late to make sure a customer is happy, go with them. We are a unit – this is about creating a siege mentality that we succeed or fail together – so don’t let anyone go the extra mile alone. Imagine a company where everybody helps back everyone else up because they know they all share the same vision.
We’ve also begun the process of introducing a new value – Real Talk. Real Talk means being able to communicate in a safe and secure environment but in a way that encourages you to speak your mind. There are plenty of times in business where employees feel like they may not have the ability to say what’s really going on and Real Talk is a way that you can always get to the crux of the matter at hand.
Conclusion
The values we have at Global App Testing are fluid but strong. What this means is that we can be flexible about what might not be working. If Real Talk doesn’t work out then we’ll simply throw it out. But this doesn’t mean we’re wishy-washy.
We know what we want as a company and how we want our employees to feel. Our values are core to how we make business decisions, how we communicate with one another and how we work with our customers.
Interested in joining us? Drop your CV/resume to us via https://www.globalapptesting.com/company/careers or reach out to us any way you want.