# Small vs. big company culture and the HubSpot Culture Code

- **Episode:** [23](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/23.md) (2023-01-25)
- **Type:** other
- **Tags:** company-culture, hubspot, culture-code
- **Time:** 7:13–13:27 (start 433s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/23?t=433](https://truthliesandwork.com/23?t=433)

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[7:13] Al Elliott: One of the most common questions we get about developing company culture is about the differences between smaller and larger organizations. So we asked Kyle about this, and he explains what smaller organizations and businesses can learn from the big ones about culture. I think it comes down to, like, when it comes to culture, It really is the principles and values that you stand behind. And those guiding principles and values then make their way into the entire organization. And if they're documented, if they're clear, if they're communicated frequently, you'll start to see them come through the work itself. So I think at HubSpot, for example, we talk a lot about HEART, and you can find our culture code on HubSpot's website. It's a document
[8:03] Leanne Elliott: Yeah
[8:03] Al Elliott: I think it was created over 10 years ago, but continually updated and referenced and mentioned within employee trainings and onboardings. And these are the values that we stand behind as a company. And I think what's great about that is you start to think about, okay, how can these values be brought into my work? If it's our marketing department, we believe in offering free education and value before ever asking anyone to check out our software. We just believe that if we can help people, we will achieve our goals in the long term. If it's our sales organization, you find people who are very relatable in that organization, build trust quickly, very empathetic when they're talking to small businesses that are trying to grow. And we have better deal-to-close rates because we just have great people in sales who live up to these values. And then when it comes to your HR team, I think it comes through in the recruiting and hiring. So who are the type of people that we're bringing into the organization? So whether you're a small business or a very large brand like a Xerox or HubSpot, I think you'd want to take the time as a founder or a leadership team member and say, what are the values we stand for as a business? Let's write them down and then let's make sure we bring those to every team member within the business and make sure we live up to them
[9:30] Leanne Elliott: I am standing, I'm applauding. I love that advice from Kyle. And this is something that I, I think is such a great thing for small and medium-sized businesses to start with. You have your, your vision and your values, and that's super, super important. How do those values come to life within your business? How do they translate into observable behaviors that we see? And how does that impact our morale and our performance and how our customers see us? And, and And then how we can recruit for culture-add, not culture-fit. So people who are gonna, gonna add something special to our culture based on the values we already hold dear and show day to day in our working lives. So yeah, brilliant advice from, from Kyle there. So as we said, employer brand is basically how the outside world sees our culture, and Kyle explains why that's important
[10:23] Al Elliott: After Xerox, I spent some time at Fresenius Medical Care. It's a large dialysis services provider, and the Communications team and the HR team operated as one. And I think the reason the brand matters and important, more importantly, the employer brand is the values and messaging that you have to your customers and to the market should align with the values and messaging that you're sending to your employees because they are the ones who are interacting with customers and bringing your product to market. And so I think it's critically important to almost have the same branding. I know that when it comes to the employer brand, sometimes larger companies will do a recruitment campaign that has some different messaging or brand and creative elements. But at the core of it, I think you're talking about what is the brand for our company? And then from there, how do we adjust that and pivot that to speak to potential talent that we want to bring into the company? And how do we use those values to Dictate our messaging for onboarding new employees. What do we stand for? What are we doing here as a company? And then ultimately, when it comes to just growing your employee base, we want to make sure that in our trainings and in our development programs that we're bringing those values in as well. So I do think just the core brand for your company can go both ways as long as you tailor it to the audience that you're trying to serve. So I think what's really clear there is that we're talking about congruence. Like, you, you might, you might want to create like this fancy recruitment campaign showing how happy and wonderful everyone is in your, in your business. And if they are, then great, go ahead and do it. But if they're not, if they're miserable, if it's, if it's totally incongruent, then that is not your employer brand. That's basically something you've made up
[12:19] Leanne Elliott: And I think with that, you know, if people are happy, why are they happy? What, what is creating this environment where people are happy and healthy and productive in, in their work? That might not be what you think it is. Um, so yeah, I think, I think you're right, Alan. I think this incongruence is a really big issue. We don't like incongruences as humans, as employees. Um, we all put up, um, with things that are transparent a lot longer than we will put up with things that just don't make sense
[12:47] Al Elliott: You've got a great— was it a great—
[12:49] Leanne Elliott: it wasn't a stat, it was like a saying about people, about managers So yeah, people will put up with a bad manager longer than they will an inconsistent manager. These kind of wild variations in leadership behavior or how they treat people, how they make decisions, that unpredictability is really unsettling for us and our wellbeing. So yeah, lesson one of leadership, just be consistent. Worry about that
[13:17] Al Elliott: Definitely. It's probably the same in marketing as well, being consistent and making sure there's no dissonance or incongruality. Is that a word?
[13:22] Leanne Elliott: Yeah
[13:24] Al Elliott: Is that a word? I've just made up a word
[13:25] Leanne Elliott: No idea, but I like it