What Are the Coolest Start-up Culture Hacks?

Employees are an organisation's best asset; no one knows it better than start-up companies. In the long run, maintaining employee morale and a vibrant workplace environment help start-ups stay in business. As a result, start-up organisations create some cultural hacks to motivate their employees; these little things help start-up organisations build a community and put workers together.

This article brings some of the fascinating cultural hacks adopted by the start-up communities across the world.

Following the coolest hacks adopted by the start-ups:

1. Facewall at Hubspot

HubSpot has a project called Facewall that allows workers to know about the person with whom they are working. HubSpot opted to place a digital wall of faces in its lobby and on the web to preserve its small-company feel and start-up culture. The show rotates around the faces of various HubSpotters in the lobby, and the online version allows you to scan for people with whom you are going to work. You can also play a Facewall game to find out how well you know the people with whom you work.

2. Family first at Fundable

For young parents working at start-ups can be overwhelming and challenging. Crowdfunding start-up Fundable is committed to building a community that respects the positions of workers as parents. Under this scheme, workers may bring their spouses or children to work any day of the week. Apart from these, several events are hosted that invite the whole family to enjoy. Employees are often encouraged to leave the workplace by 7 pm to spend quality time with family.

3. Espresso bar at Evernote

One of the unique culture hacks is present at Evernote. Here they assign their managers to their office's coffee shop. The senior managers serve hour-long shifts all week long that allow employees to talk with each other and the senior managers.

4. Quiet Wednesdays at Rounds

On Wednesdays, they stay quiet! This start-up observes quiet Wednesdays every week. During Wednesday's no one talks with each other in the initial half. This aims to help improve productivity. You can ping or email the colleagues if you have a question or look to say something.

5. Bell of Awesomeness at Mindvalley

At Mindvalley, the whole team meets once a week to refresh each department's latest records, epic moments, and updates. Whenever a brand new record is created, a Bell of awesomeness is rung. With this solution chosen by Mindvalley, you can create a much more pleasurable meeting experience when the team gathers for shared evaluation.

6. Family engagement at Directi

Joining the workplace directly from the campus can be a daunting experience for the applicant and an emotional moment for the parents. Directi, an Indian technology company, helps its novices to relax and warm up to the new workplace. Directi has the tradition of sending thoughtful, handwritten letters to the recruit’s parents, assuring them of the applicant’s well-being, all the advantages of an organisation that cares and congratulates the parent on raising the child well.

It's a terrific hack and unique in comparison with any other culture. Just think about it: you just graduated from college, you're excited to join a new business, and boom, you got an email from your parents saying they got a letter from your business saying how talented you are. By doing so, Directi allows staff to become part of a business and makes the company part of the families of employees.

7. Diversity celebrations at Mindvalley

Start-ups are genuinely global with a workforce from around the world today. Mindvalley has different cultural days such as Malaysia Day, Canada Day, and India Day to celebrate employees from different ethnicities. The entire day is spent to understand and learn the region's history and traditions. The participants will be exposed to their food, music, and culture by co-workers from that region.

8. Demonstration by employees at Twilio

Twilio is a start-up organisation that relies heavily on the awareness of its employees regarding their produced goods to explain the importance of their product to the customers easily. All workers must create an app developed using Twilio and demonstrate it. On completion, they receive a personal Kindle and jacket from the company. Each Wednesday, employees get the opportunity to present their applications at the company dinner. This applies to all departments across the company.

9. Employee milestone charity program at VMware

VMware has got a unique cultural hack where they recognize employees who were with the organisation for 4, 6, 8, and 12 years. Each of these staff receives some money at each of those milestones, which they can give to the charity they want.

10. Starter kit at Commerce sciences

The company's pampering at Commerce Sciences begins right from day one. The organisation has a tradition that the last person to join the enterprise will get a starter kit immediately after joining. Each "kit" ranges from funny jokes, fascinating books to coffee capsules, all of them fully distinct and customised.

11. Vacation tax at Quora

Quora has got an amazing hack called vacation tax. Employees bring exotic food products or other souvenirs to try during each holiday for everyone in the workplace. Although this is unofficially followed in businesses when workers travel overseas, even employees who have not traveled can join this exercise. It also helps them to learn about new cultures and recount travel experiences together.

12. Fridays for discussion at Says

In this start-up company, everybody, including visitors and customers, meet on Friday and get to discuss a single phenomenon for which they are thankful or grateful. It works as a profoundly emotional and memorable experience that enables individuals to be associated with each other. This helps in inspiring the workers to work harder.

13. Open salary model at Buffer

Buffer has got an unusual Open Salaries model, where the firm reveals the process behind salary. They use a basic formula for estimating wages, which is disclosed to the entire team. Open wages are a part of Buffer's ultimate objective of becoming a totally honest company.

14. Fire Pitches at ZipMatch

At ZipMatch, every Friday, workers exchange crazy ideas over drinks, truly the weekend. Anyone may present ideas from optimising an organisational mechanism to how to address a problem. They also arrange meetings with industry managers to gain experience from their exposures.

15. Cooking by the family at OZ

In case you are living away from home, and if you order lunch every day, you may experience homesickness or real illness. At OZ, any team member can welcome family in the office, whether mother, father, or any other family member, and they can cook homemade food in the business' small kitchen.

16. A birthday celebration at Transifex

Transifex has a unique tradition, where on your birthday, you'll get a costume from the person whose birthday falls just before you. You need to wear this costume on your birthday. Following this, you have to choose a costume for the upcoming birthday of another colleague. The cycle continues.

Final Words

Start-up culture has gained a lot of attention and traction lately — people are searching for ways to boost work experience. Some are even advocates of effortlessly incorporating work into their life. The culture wasn't created in a day. So in case you are a start-up owner, think of some cultural hacks which are aligned with your overall company goals.

Also read:

What are the Best Productivity Hacks of Startup CEOs?
Top 10 Things Every Business Owner Should Know & Do.
What is the perfect startup team? Importance, Tips & more
What are the Best Ways to Think of Ideas for a Startup?
What Is the Best Advice for a Young, First-Time Start-Up CEO?