Sustaining Firm Tradition, SMBs
Right here’s how firms like Insmed and Chainguard, honorees on the 2025 Fortune Greatest Small and Medium Workplaces lists, are utilizing expertise to develop their enterprise.
Speak to leaders like Dan Lorenc, CEO of Chainguard a tech unicorn now valued at $3.5 billion after its Sequence D elevate, and one factor turns into clear: They’re obsessive about tradition.
“Tradition’s actually attention-grabbing,” Lorenc says. “We discuss lots about it, however we will not actually say what the tradition is. We are able to solely say what we would like the tradition to be.”
As a substitute, his guideline for the tradition at Chainguard is “10 years from now, a gaggle of workers get collectively that do not work right here anymore, they usually begin speaking about what it was like — that is actually what the tradition is.”
Staff have a lot of constructive issues to say about their expertise at Chainguard, No. 5 on the Fortune Greatest Medium Workplaces™ Record in 2025.
A whopping 94% of workers say their work is significant and 100% of workers report giving further effort. At a typical U.S. firm of the identical measurement, solely 63% of employes say their work is significant and solely 60% say they provide further effort.
One differentiator that makes Chainguard more and more aggressive: being a 100% distant office.
“Distant work has more and more change into a aggressive differentiator in hiring,” Lorenc says. “As quite a lot of firms have began that return to workplace piece; we will rent the most effective folks wherever they’re.”
Insmed, a BioPharma firm and No. 2 on the Greatest Medium Workplaces record, additionally sees distant work alternatives as a recruiting device.
“We realized in a short time in the course of the pandemic that we had been capable of faucet into a number of the greatest expertise all over the world as a result of we had been agnostic about the place folks sat,” says Nicole Schaeffer, chief folks technique officer at Insmed. That flexibility is now a everlasting a part of Insmed’s tradition.
Investing in connection
As these firms have taken benefit of versatile work, they proceed to spend money on connection. At Insmed, new hires within the U.S. are introduced collectively for a multi-day immersion program throughout the first few months following their begin date.
The purpose? “To study extra about each side of the enterprise, and to spend a while exploring the tradition,” Schaeffer says.
Regardless of the expense, Insmed plans to proceed to spend money on this system.
“Individuals stand up to hurry sooner; they perceive the group; they perceive our values, our guiding ideas, how we anticipate folks to point out up for one another,” Schaeffer says. At Insmed, 98% of workers say they obtain a heat welcome when becoming a member of the corporate, in comparison with 76% of workers at a typical medium-sized U.S. firm.
At Chainguard, everybody comes collectively two instances a yr for thoughtfully designed occasions to make sure cross-team connections and interactions happen. Along with alignment and technique classes with leaders, workers additionally take part in hackathons or volunteering occasions. As the corporate has grown, bringing folks along with intention has change into extra necessary, Lorenc says.
Regardless of being totally distant, Chainguard makes certain to carry workers collectively for firm offsites to advertise connection.
“We’re too huge for a single restaurant, so even once we exit to dinner, we take note of who’s going to which group and the place they’re sitting,” he shared for instance.
How does Chainguard take into consideration the return on funding of bringing its 500-plus workers to an offsite twice a yr?
“It is cheaper than an workplace,” Lorenc says. “Even when we had an workplace, we might nonetheless need to do stuff like this, and the outcomes are nice.” Chainguard tracks internet promoter rating and worker survey outcomes to grasp how these occasions join with workers, making tweaks every year as the corporate grows.
“It is a completely different expertise each time,” Lorenc says.
Staff’ impression on enterprise efficiency
Chainguard and Insmed each consider that nice office tradition drives enterprise success — and each firms are experiencing enviable enterprise outcomes. Chainguard’s $3.5 billion valuation is constructed on a portfolio of high-profile shoppers, from Canva and HPE to Andruil. Insmed simply earned FDA approval for its second drug, and appears ahead to the continued development of its pipeline — outcomes that present up in spectacular inventory market development over the previous yr.
Each firms say their success is as a result of tenacity and abilities of their workers.
“This enterprise is all constructed on the fortitude, the drive, the eagerness that our workers need to do one thing novel and completely different for sufferers,” Schaeffer says of the biopharma business. “I am a agency believer for those who get the 2 Ps proper — I name it the affected person and our folks — something is feasible.”
Insmed’s dedicated workforce has pushed the corporate to essential breakthroughs just like the latest FDA approval of its second drug.
Lorenc agrees. “We might not be the place we’re with out our workers,” he says.
For different firms trying to construct an award-winning tradition, Lorenc and Schaeffer supply some easy recommendation:
1. Deal with folks like adults
“As a result of we deal with folks with that stage of respect and professionalism, we get a complete lot again in spades,” Schaeffer says.
2. Be clear with workers about expectations
“Hypergrowth shouldn’t be straightforward, and everyone has to know that and acknowledge that on the best way in,” Lorenc says. Life in a startup isn’t for everybody, so readability about expectations is essential.
3. Make your suggestions loops as tight as doable
If you end up rising quick, it’s straightforward for issues to fall off your radar, Lorenc warns. That’s why his crew runs nameless pulse surveys after each all-hands assembly, holds common listening classes with completely different departments and position ranges, and checks Nice Place To Work information outcomes.
“I am spending not less than an hour per week listening to what’s working, what’s not working, and taking all of that in and determining what adjustments we need to make,” Lorenc says.
4. Make tradition everybody’s accountability.
Everybody has a job in creating an amazing office tradition, Schaeffer says. “We’ve to interview for it, we rent for it, we make it possible for individuals are accountable to it and are exhibiting up for one another and demonstrating the tradition and residing the values each single day.”
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