Corporate culture is crucial for any business. Through the corporate culture in which the team operates, you can directly influence their motivation and, consequently, the company’s results. Today, we’ve asked several questions to our Head of HR – Irina Dudnikova who will provide more details about our corporate culture, its construction, and even share a brief case study.
Irina, not long ago, we announced the news about our rebranding, and officially introduced our internal corporate logo, which reflects the identity of the Already Media team. Today, we wanted to hear “firsthand” from you about any other updates in our corporate culture.
The corporate culture of AM is a unique yet scalable story that started with a few employees and has grown to several hundred people in a relatively short period. Our team culture helps the company achieve incredible results and move forward at a tremendous pace. The formation of this culture is a global process, to which each of us contributes daily. We strive to be faster, higher, stronger, to excel in our direction, and to make a significant contribution to the work and development of projects every day.
I would call 2022 the start and emergence of this culture, 2023 the year of scaling and strengthening, and 2024 the year of establishing the internal identity of the AM team. Our new HR logo perfectly reflects our existing identity, which I will now try to explain simply and clearly.
I am a hero.
I can demonstrate my skills by solving the most complex tasks.
I accomplish various, big and small, feats in my work.
I can always do more than I did before. I do everything in my power to make it work.
We are a team who realize incredible projects and ideas, doing it together. Achieving incredible results alone in our work is impossible, so I am part of the bigger “we” of each of our teams.
Each of our teams is different, but we all work under the Already Media brand.
And we proudly say – YES, WE ARE ALREADY MEDIA.
And first, I’m curious to know, what is your role as Head of HR in shaping and maintaining corporate culture and values?
The role of the Head of HR in this matter is one of the key ones.
Effective formation and maintenance of corporate culture require close contact between HR, managers, and employees. The Head of HR plays a leading role in defining, implementing, and managing a culture that supports the company’s strategic goals and creates a positive and productive work environment.
In more detail, there are several areas of responsibility within my scope that help to support and develop corporate culture.
Defining culture and cultural code
Responsibility for defining the values and norms of behavior that constitute corporate culture. This is done through managing communications, company policies, creating and maintaining a work environment that reinforces our values.
Creating a culture-oriented environment
Creating a work environment that encourages and supports desired cultural behavior. This includes developing culture and values-oriented recognition, mentoring, and training programs.
Recruitment and retention of employees
Hiring process. We successfully match employees in each of our teams whose values and behaviors align with the corporate culture, and implement initiatives to retain and preserve employees who share and embody our culture.
Collecting and analyzing feedback from employees
Collecting and analyzing data on culture, conducting satisfaction and effectiveness surveys among employees, gathering feedback from colleagues. This information is used to evaluate cultural initiatives and identify areas for improvement. I also advise managers and employees on issues related to culture and maintaining a positive work environment.
Forming and defining corporate culture is a lengthy process that requires in-depth analysis. Tell me about this process and what key points were considered in its formation?
The company culture, as I mentioned earlier, was formed gradually.
At the moment of business scaling, we needed to explore and document what we already had, supplement it, and improve it to make a quantum leap.
At the same time, we launched a major HR branding project.
Speaking simply about what HR branding is, it’s specific conventions and rules of the team’s game, based on the company’s characteristics and business goals. The ultimate result is establishing a certain image and perception and cultivating the values that exist within the company.
The HR branding project is currently one of the largest projects in AM in terms of team involvement and research, volume of information, and number of participants. Nearly 100 employees of all levels, from juniors to founders, took part in the project, each sharing their vision of what AM means to them.
A huge amount of work has been done to study the opinions of our employees and “package” that identity into meaningful and visual components. All elements of the existing corporate culture were brought together, many hours were spent analyzing and structuring information, and key points and intersections were identified that characterized and took into account the peculiarities of the AM brand as a place of formal and informal team interaction.
Based on the data obtained, we developed a positioning strategy for the HR brand within and outside the team, which already helps us move forward at a rapid pace without compromising the quality of our work.
We’ve already learned enough about the process, now it’s interesting to hear about the values and culture that the Already Media team follows?
Currently, the AM brand is a team capable of the boldest feats and has all the resources to solve tasks that no one else takes on in the iGaming industry.
For candidates and future colleagues, we position ourselves as the best employer in the iGaming industry, one that fulfills all commitments and enables rapid growth and development from within.
For AM employees, it’s not just a brand but a team of those who are ready to achieve incredible results together, while being in an atmosphere of support, inspiration for new feats, and fair rewards for excellent performance.
All the values that exist within the team can be grouped into four key ones:
Diversity
We are different, but we are the first. Each team is unique in its own way, but each of us is always first in something.
Mutual assistance
We work shoulder to shoulder; without this, the team’s result is impossible. Mutual assistance and responsiveness are not just empty words for us.
Leadership
We set records every day. Each of our processes is aimed at doing our job better than before.
Accountability for decisions
Every AM employee knows how to take responsibility for and be accountable for their decisions.
Perhaps you have examples of initiatives and successful cases of strengthening and maintaining corporate identity?
A strong and consistent corporate identity has significant benefits for companies, as it contributes to strengthening employee motivation, increasing efficiency, and creating a positive brand reputation in the market.
As an example of initiatives, we can mention our communication strategy with employees, involving employees in the development of corporate culture elements, the opportunity to influence decisions internally, as well as creating the very environment that includes events and processes that reflect us as a team.
These are by no means all the initiatives we have at the moment.
We have big plans, so there’s a lot of interesting things ahead.
And finally, we would like to hear your expert opinion on the opportunities provided by having a corporate culture and how it impacts the company?
Effectively managing corporate culture is a nuanced and comprehensive process that permeates all areas of a company’s presence as a unified entity in the market. The key opportunities that I would highlight include:
1. Attraction and retention of top talent: A strong corporate culture attracts and retains the most talented and suitable employees who share the company’s values and goals.
2. Increased work efficiency: When employees feel valued by the company and connected with their colleagues beyond just the work environment, they are more motivated and work more productively.
3. Best results, customer loyalty, and long-term partnerships: Employees who share and understand the company’s expectations strive to achieve the highest results, while customers become more loyal and trust the brand for new projects.
4. Adaptability to changes: A corporate culture that values flexibility and learning helps the company quickly adapt to changes in the market and business environment.
5. Brand reputation and recognition: A strong corporate culture creates a positive brand reputation and recognition, attracting new customers and partners.
Our corporate culture directly influences employee engagement and motivation to excel at work, fosters a sense of belonging to a larger common goal, provides conditions for interaction and collaboration, helps adapt to rapidly changing conditions, and improves work efficiency.
If you think your company doesn’t have a corporate culture, know that it exists regardless. Whether you manage it or it exists independently is another question.
In turn, we do everything possible to ensure that employees feel comfortable and the business achieves the best possible results.
