The 3 Pillars of Company Culture

Let’s be honest, culture is more than having a pool table, a pizza party once a quarter, or a happy hour with your co-workers. Sure, these are all important bonding experiences that contribute to culture, but the true culture of an organization is much deeper.

A good culture is almost intangible. It’s the conversations, collaboration, camaraderie and general feeling of being a part of something bigger. It’s having the courage and freedom to pursue new ideas, a drive to deliver the best outcomes for clients and trust that your team will always have your back. And for us and the entire Anthologic collective, it’s all that and more.

Our culture has evolved a lot since 1999. When Performance Marketing started off, we only had five people and a tiny office space — developing a culture was easier. Fast forward 20-plus years and we’re now a collective of nearly 100 talented individuals operating in a post-pandemic, hybrid work environment. Building and maintaining a strong culture now requires more focus, consideration and intention than ever before.

Here, Everyone Belongs.

Building an inclusive culture that welcomes and supports diversity in every aspect is deeply important to us. Because when people feel safe, supported and heard, they become more motivated to give their all to their teams and clients.

Diversity and Inclusion is a continuous effort for us. One of the many initiatives we’ve implemented includes training to ensure more equitable practices across the collective. The program is designed to move our collective toward the highest standards of equity and inclusion across race, gender, sexual orientation, age, faith, disabilities and more. Through this training, we’re learning how to recognize and remove barriers to inclusion as well as proactively increase opportunities for diverse perspectives and participation across our entire organization.

While embracing and celebrating differences, we have also created opportunities for strengthening unity through shared passions and traditions. Our Anthologic Culture + Diversity Crew tackles this by planning quarterly initiatives that support the causes and communities that are most important to our team, including women’s empowerment, mental health, inclusion and community involvement.

We also offer Volunteer Paid Time Off, which allows our people to spend more of their individual time to focus on the organizations and causes that speak to them.

Annual chili cookoffs, Iowa State Fair get-togethers, summer family picnics, weekly mindfulness sessions and festive holiday parties are also permanent fixtures on our calendar — giving our team the chance to step away from the work and simply enjoy time with the people they work with.

Empowerment to the Employee.

If employees don’t have a voice, a company culture will never improve.

Listening is a true superpower. But to flex this power, we need to make space for people to speak up. We’re not afraid to ask for honest feedback on new processes, leadership or cultural initiatives. This is how we’re able to refine our culture to reflect the people who make up who we are as a collective company.

Giving space to speak up also carries over into collaborative team settings, where the sharing of unique ideas and perspectives is crucial to finding a solution that delivers the best results for our clients.

Recognizing and appreciating the hard work of our people is also another way we empower and uplift them. Giving kudos and awesomeness shoutouts for pushing limits, digging deep for ideas, earning trust with clients and supporting the team has become a fully adopted habit across the collective.

Finally, there’s communication. We can’t expect our people to feel confident in their roles if we leave them in the dark. That’s why transparency is key. Our solution? Weekly town halls to discuss new information and quarterly meetings to dive deeper into wins, losses and goals.

Keeping the Workday Flexible.

Anthologic’s culture is rooted in respect and trust. Respecting our team enough to allow them to make their own decisions and create their own work/life balance, and trusting them to give just as much as they take. But this requires flexibility on our (the company’s) part. So, we reimagined our workplace.

First, we started by implementing Work-From-Home Wednesdays. It was a baby step, but (pre-pandemic) the thought of allowing everyone to work remotely for a day was a bit terrifying. Luckily, we stuck with it. Not only did our people love it, but it coincidentally prepared us for when the entire global workforce had to pivot to remote work when the pandemic hit in 2020.

After a couple years of a successful remote work experience, we decided to keep it as an option for all of our employees. Of course, we also leave the office doors open to anyone who wants to collaborate face to face.

Continuing our flexible train of cultural evolution, we tossed out the traditional “8-to-5” concept. It’s important that our people have the ability to take a couple extra hours in their day to go to doctor’s appointments, pick up kids, run errands or just check out when they’re feeling burned out. To accommodate this, we established core hours. Core hours (10 a.m. to 3 p.m.) are when everyone is expected to be “clocked in” and working.

And as long as 40 hours are logged at the end of the week, the remaining non-core hours are completely flexible. They can be completed later in the evening, in the early hours the next day or another time that week — whichever works best with a person’s schedule.

The reason why is simple math: flexibility + happier people + cohesive teams = better work for clients.

We Call it Home.

At PM and Anthologic, we’ve worked hard (and continue to work hard) to provide a sense of belonging, empowerment and flexibility, with a dash of the special stuff, by creating a place where our people can bring their whole selves. Every day, we celebrate the work, the wins, our community and each other.

And if you’re looking for a new workplace to call home, we might just have the place for you.

This article was published before January 2024 and does not reflect the consolidation of Performance Marketing, Vector Haus, and Blue Traffic into Anthologic.