Carrying on with our company culture series, this week, we take a look at Buffer’s approach to its company culture and HR. What makes them special and how are they attracting all the best talent?
We’ve previously taken a look at Adobe and Netflix, and now it’s time to take a closer look at what it’s like to work for the brand behind the social media management tool that the world has gone crazy for. Similarly to Netflix, they use SlideShare to outline the 10 values that Buffer care about instilling in their employees. Check out the SlideDeck below to see what it’s all about:
Transparency:
As you can probably tell from their SlideShare deck, Buffer pride themselves on being a truly transparent brand. Something that really set me aback when I read it was this article about Buffer’s decline in referral traffic. They used the article to explain that they’ve had a dramatic decline in traffic and the reasons they think it happened. They then even go on to explain what they are going to do to try and beat the decline – which shows what a truly honest brand they are. There’s nothing better than truly trusting a brand and there being an open and honest relationship between both employees and management, and the customers they cater for. They’ve even published all their employees salaries on their site. You can’t get anymore transparent than that!
Self improvement is a big deal:
Something that Buffer hold at high importance is self improvement. They believe that the best employees are the ones that are continually learning and throwing themselves in the deep end. Not only does this keep employees engaged and involved in the brand, it also means they are growing alongside the company. They also noted in their culture deck that this keep employees minds and body healthy and happy.
Showing gratitude:
Something that Buffer make explicitly clear in their values is that they alway show gratitude. The words that stuck out to me particularly were ‘humility’ and ‘privilege’. Taking a step back and being thankful for your circumstances can be the basis of a truly happy and honest workforce. Buffer encourage this wholeheartedly.
Listening:
Buffer know how important it is to listen. They outline in their culture slide deck how important it is to understand rather than to be understood when in work situations, it can be so easy to not properly listen to colleagues and customers. But Buffer do it differently. They put a large emphasis on their employees listening to each other and to customers. The focus is on listening rather than responding and learning rather than preaching.
Do you work for an awesome company? Are you proud of the company culture that you’ve built up? Let us know in the comments below!
