The Formation of a Special Culture
Let’s take it back to the beginning. Mediafly was founded in 2006 by Carson Conant, who had a vision to create a digital content sharing platform. In order for his vision to become reality, he hand-selected a small team that set out to develop, launch and grow a customer-centric company built on an elegant software solution. In the formative years, Carson was responsible for all of Mediafly’s recruiting and hiring. He was particularly focused on hiring amazing developers that could deliver an enterprise-grade solution to the world’s leading companies. With Carson recruiting the most talented and brilliant employees, Mediafly started with a very strong foundation for our culture. He had built a team of like-minded and extremely talented developers with a very strong affinity for each other and product excellence.
Growing Pains: Preserving Startup Values While Scaling Up
As Mediafly began closing very large contracts with very large companies like The Walt Disney Company and Goldman Sachs, it became clear that we needed to hire incrementally in other areas of the company. Admittedly, this resulted in a few missteps. We made a few bad hires, waited too long on a few transitions and, appropriately, this led to internal grumbling from our amazing developers. But you may ask, “John, really, what’s the cost of a few complaints?”
Well, as a good Chicago Booth grad, I have some data. According to the U.S. Dept. of Labor, a bad hire leads to a transition and onboarding process that will ultimately cost 30% of employee’s first-year earnings. Had more time been spent on getting the right person in the first place, this is a cost that could have been completely avoided. In addition, according to a 2013 study by Robert Half, supervisors lose more than one day per week on a bad hire, a 20% decrease in productivity per supervisor, per bad hire. Delaying the departure of someone who needs to be transitioned is also incredibly costly. Big picture? For a small company, a $100,000 investment in the wrong person is a legitimate threat to the business. The loss of productivity (and cash) could be catastrophic. The “few complaints” were an indicator that we were losing productivity and needed to adjust our thinking.
The Mandate: Defining the “Right Fit” and Nurturing our Values
Get the Data!
The executive team was determined to meet the needs of our employees and learn how to “do right by them” in their eyes. As a result, in 2011 we launched our first Mediafly Culture Survey. We needed to know what was working and what was not. We needed qualitative information from our team as to common traits of successful Stunning Flyers. And most importantly, we needed to establish a roadmap for establishing which priorities we needed to focus on getting right first. To do this, we sent a totally anonymous survey to the team in the hopes that they would feel comfortable enough to share their wisdom with us. Luckily (and a little painfully) our employees were not shy to give us our scorecard. On the painful side, the data told us that our comp was off and our benefits package stunk. On the positive side, the team told us the necessary traits for Flyer success (See Graphic #1). They also told us that they trusted Carson and loved the product. A great start!
We Have the Data… Now What?
The energy was so positive following that meeting that what had been planned as a one-time initiative has become a centerpiece of our annual planning. We use what is now our Annual Mediafly Culture Survey to frame a number of our key internal initiatives. Major initiatives like the improvement of inter-department communication (See Graphic #2), frequency and framework for our quarterly Town Hall meetings, the creation of our Mediafly Cares philanthropic initiative and launch of culture-focused Flyer Experience Council all stemmed from feedback received in our Culture Survey.
And So We Continue to Invest to Preserve the Startup Mindset that Got Us Here
From Carson’s first stunning hires on the engineering team, we knew that our culture was special at Mediafly. In fact, since our founding, each Flyer must initial this statement in their Offer Letter:
We also knew that as we grew we would have to invest in and protect that culture. Our Annual Mediafly Culture Survey provides the mechanism by which we measure our success and identify areas for us to improve. Data leads to informed decision-making, and for Mediafly, it is one of the most crucial elements to maintaining a positive and strong culture that empowers employees. Too many wrong decisions can be catastrophic to a small company’s growth, culture and overall morale. Because of the way we are intentional about our culture, we’re proud to continue developing a culture of trust, transparency, and innovation that inspires and challenges our employees every day.
As we enter 2019, our most recent survey has set out a roadmap that includes major initiatives around Professional Development as well as new ways for our international Flyers to better connect with their co-workers. I can’t wait to see the impact of these initiatives and what our 2019 Culture Survey will say about where we can invest time and focus next to make our culture even better!
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