You may have noticed that we are not your typical organisation. That has everything to do with our culture, into which we invest a great deal of energy. To make this culture more tangible, we began explicitly communicating our ways of doing things. After all, culture is not determined by what you say, but by what you do.

As our why states, 'we improve the quality of life', for everyone involved in our platform. To do this, we always put people first. This means: 

• We act on our values and put our money where our mouth is. We do as we say and say as we do.

• We revolve around trust and a fundamental belief in the goodness of people.

• We are policy-light: the fewer policies, the better. 

• We are transparent and openly share information, as long as this does not harm individuals.

• Our dual focus combines a long-term vision with short-term action, based on continuous alignment of vision and values.

• We focus strongly on personal and professional growth and always put people over processes.

• We give and receive feedback - brace yourself and learn.

• We are highly inclusive, but do not make diversity an end in itself.

• We recruit, evaluate and promote on the basis of culture and function. You either tick both boxes or you don't.

• We value our rituals, but do not cling to the past. Rituals are allowed to evolve.

• We keep our carbon footprint as low as possible. We encourage sustainable initiatives.

• We stand by to agreed information security and privacy policies. 

People strategy

We do this in order to create an environment where together we can be our natural best. Autonomy, entrepreneurship and connection are deeply integrated into our core values - always with a healthy dose of fun. 

That is our People strategy. Executed properly, this leads to a great culture.

Guidion Culture Framework

Behaviour

We hire people and build our culture on the basis of shared core values: the essence of Guidion culture, which has always been anchored in our behaviour. 

Our core values

How we lead

What use are core values if people do not behave accordingly? We all need to reflect on how we behave and live our values? This starts with leadership - people look to leaders for guidance. If leaders’ behavior does not reflect the values, can we take them seriously?

We therefore believe in leading by example. Together, we create an environment in which entrepreneurship, connection, growth and fun are central to everything we do. We believe in our colleagues and give them the context, support and autonomy they need to get the best out of themselves. We are value-driven and policy light. 'Trust is our default'. We therefore do not have a ready-made handbook full of rules and procedures. We have written down the bare essentials and offer colleagues support and customisation where needed. 

Check out our 'How to Lead' for more insights about leadership within Guidion. 

Systems and processes

Each process, system and structure either strengthens or weakens the culture. Several systems, such as recruiting, goal setting, development and rewarding, are important to the overall culture. So this is how we do it (as Montell Jordan would have said...)

Objective hiring

We like attracting new Guidion colleagues, but we also want to offer colleagues every opportunity to grow in new roles. We recruit and promote people based on job fit and culture match. Culture match identifies personal motives, job fit gives us insight into competences. We have consciously made our recruitment processes as objective as possible. Assessments are crucial to we avoid exclusively hiring people who think as we do. Diversity of backgrounds, perspectives and ideas enriches our culture. 

Culture match

Culture match looks at an individual’s motivations. Are these in line with our core values? Can that person be the best version of themselves at Guidion? A culture match is not about hiring 'people we like' - that would imply very little diversity - but instead means we share values. Our values bring us together and allow us to be different, complementing and strengthening each other.

Job fit
For an objective assessment of the job fit, we dig deep into the job description. Which competencies and skills are crucial? In this way, we can objectively assess whether a person is a good fit for the job. We prefer to focus on talent and potential rather than CV. 

Motives that align with our core values and competences that match what is needed to be successful in a given role are the best indicator for personal and professional success. 

Goal setting

Guidion doesn’t work with extensive annual plans, but with a dual focus. Every three months, we translate our long-term vision and strategies into short-term actions. Together, we prioritize and decide what we want to achieve in the coming quarter. In this way, we do remain agile and focus on achievable goals. This makes us successful and working on specific goals provides greater individual satisfaction.

Our reward system

In our view, intrinsic motivation is everything. That is why we pay well, but don’t overpay. We offer no individual bonuses, except for on-the-spotlight bonuses (explained further on). We do believe in profit sharing. On the other hand, we don't work with fixed salary increase steps. We consciously create space for everyone to grow; via job openings, job crafting and internal promotion. Growth and development go hand in hand with salary increases. "If you do what you did, you get what you got", so don’t ask for more salary, ask for more responsibilities. 

Be sure to take a look at our employment conditions, also included in this Manifest.

Let's Grow cycle

We’ve introduced a half yearly Let’s Grow cycle! Focused on individual development with attention for feedback and competence development. This is not linked to salary increases or bonuses. It involves two-way communication based on transparent input from both employee and supervisor. Every half year individuals and their performance are assessed as part of the Let’s Grow cycle using a two-point scale - 'meets expectations' or 'does not meet expectations'. This prevents focusing on discussing ‘scores’, instead of a good conversation about growth and development. We also ensure assessment is clear and/or no one leaves the conversation with the wrong idea. Of course, the assessment should never come as a surprise. 

This Manifest  includes an entire chapter on how you can grow personally and professionally at Guidion. A vital system, in line with our core values. We won't go into the details here (again...) so check out 'How you can grow' and the How to Lead for more information on how growth and development are embedded within Guidion.

Brutally honest feedback 

Feedback is essential to our culture and strongly linked to our core values. We fully understand that receiving and giving feedback isn't easy, so we focus on a growth mindset that helps you receive feedback without an ‘ego’ response. Developing a growth mindset is crucial for everyone who really wants to grow and learn. We have developed in-house training and feedback guidelines to help everyone at Guidion give and receive feedback. 

Practices & rituals

Diversity & Inclusion

Diversity relates to differences among people in areas that can affect interactions and relationships, such as race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, or appearance . Diversity is all about the ‘mix’. For Guidion, this is not a goal in itself, but a means to an end, because diversity goes hand in hand with inclusion. An inclusive work culture is one in which talent is recognized, different ideas are heard, and no one is implicitly or explicitly excluded. This leads to tremendous creativity and innovation, which we use to make an impact. 

Blind spots

Guidion is a highly diverse organization and we are proud of our inclusive work culture. We do, however, recognize we have blind spots, which we are working on - an ongoing effort with no end point. Inclusivity is not the sole responsibility of our People team or Leadership team - we all share this responsibility. Our Diversity & Inclusion Crew takes the lead, creating awareness, focusing on blind spots and implementing changes that positively reinforce our inclusive work culture.

Safe working environment & confidential advisor

At Guidion, you can be yourself. A safe work environment without inappropriate behavior allows us to embrace difference. ‘Inappropriate’ actions, communications, and non-verbal behaviors are those that may be experienced as uncomfortable. It is not about your intentions, but about another person’s interpretation. Something you may consider normal, may be hurtful to someone else and cause, for example, discomfort, anger or sadness. Together we are responsible for creating and maintaining a safe environment. That means explicitly talking about behaviors and confronting people if their behavior is appropriate. Do you find it difficult to talk to someone directly? Ask a colleague or your manager for help.

Together, we can ensure a safe work environment. It goes without saying that use of alcohol (with the exception of non-excessive beer and wine consumption at Guidion festivities) and/or drugs have no place here. 

Have you witnessed or experienced unacceptable behavior? Share this with someone at Guidion, like your manager or a colleague. If there is something you would rather not discuss with your manager or a colleague, you can always speak in full confidentiality with our external Confidential Advisor. They are here to support, inform and guide you. Without your consent they will not share anything with Guidion. 

You can read here who our (external) confidential advisor is and how you can reach out to them.

The full policy, with a description of unacceptable behavior and the routes you can follow is written in this article. 

'Soapbox' explainable

"Can you explain it from the soapbox?" - a question you'll definitely be hearing at Guidion and asking yourself from time to time. We are a value-driven organization that puts people at the center of everything we do. We always assume people are good, our choices revolve around trust and we very consciously choose #policylight in our organizational structure and way of working. This ensures maximum agility, high engagement, creativity and innovative capacity. We have very few rules. Just ask yourself this logical question or spar with one of your colleagues when dealing with ethical issues and topics.

Data driven culture

In recent years we have worked hard on our data capabilities. When making major decisions, we consider what data can be used and obtain information from dashboards provided by the Data Team. We make our goals as measurable as possible, using KPIs. We experiment, innovate and measure impact. This is how we are #data driven.

Transparent communications

Transparent communications are a precondition for being successful together. Understanding what you are part of is essential, as is understanding which choices are made and why. In this way, you can make the right decisions. The better we communicate about our goals, choices and dilemmas, the more autonomy we have. A strong combination of alignment and autonomy (check the video) is vital to this. Alignment enables autonomy. To facilitate this, we have, for example, fixed rituals, consultation structures and digital support to frequently share information and conduct a dialogue:

• The Tweely - Twice a week, on mondays and thursdays, all colleagues meet in our kitchen (or online) to share information and inspiration quickly and effectively. (Find out more under ‘Rituals’.)

• News Hour - A group of colleagues that serves as a sounding board on behalf of the organisation to the Leadership team. This group ensures that information flows smoothly and transparently through the organisation. This group also meets quarterly with the leadership team to discuss what is going and adress specific themes. 

• Minutes Leadership Team meeting - Every other Tuesday, there is a Leadership team meeting. Once a month, the LT sends out a newsletter to all colleagues so that the whole organisation knows what is happening and being discussed.

• The Red Thread - The strategic document describing our identity (vision, ambition, strategies, core values and more). Every quarter we use the Red Thread as a baseis to set and align goals.

• Goalsetting - We record our goalsetting in Bob. This is where you find the KPIs and goals of all teams. It is completely transparent what all teams within Guidion are working on and what the progress is.

• Pizza, Drinks and Questions - Our unique form of management update. Every quarter, the entire organization gets together and everyone has the opportunity to ask Management questions about how Guidion is doing, why we are doing what we are doing, what choices have been made and so on. See more under the heading 'Rituals'.

Specific rituals

Facetime - principles

To create an environment in which we all can be our natural best (for on-call colleagues: an environment in which you love to work!). Where we are Happy to Help, Share the Fun, Let’s Grow and are entrepreneurs (Can-do-is-You). An environment where our office is a great place to be, we have initiated the Facetime principles. We appreciate it a lot when you are at the office and we feel it’s important that you have enough flexibility to do your work as you like. The principles provide the possibility to automate the lunch contribution and get rid of the registration form. The principles are no rules but a guideline.   

Facetimes

We believe that our office is a nice place to be, not only in terms of workplace but also in terms of lunch, other facilities, and most importantly in terms of connectedness with other colleagues. Being physically in the office allows us to interact and really connect with each other better and faster. For all permanent positions, with the exception of Data and Dev, we keep an average number of 4 facetimes per week based on full-time employment. For Data. Dev and Servicedesk employees, we maintain an average of 1 facetime per week. For Servicedesk employees roles and Operational managers, we ask you to be at our fine Amsterdam office every working day. Of course, it is up to you and your team whether you then work in the office all day or work partly from home and adjust your travel times to what suits you and your schedule. 

It’s about an average that provides direction. This can differ a bit on a weekly basis and that’s okay. Please be aware that coming to the Office is not only for yourself it’s also for others to learn from you. 

Engagement survey

Our goal is to improve the quality of your Guidion life. This revolves around attention for each other (Happy to Help), fun (Share the Fun), development (Let's Grow) and entrepreneurship (Can-do-is-You). Engagement is a strong indicator, characterised by vitality, dedication and capacity to absorb. Fortunately, engagement can be measured well. We do this two times a year using an online questionnaire in HiBob that can be completed in minutes. We use the outcome of this questionnaire to verify whether we are on the right track together. It gives Guidion tools to grow as an organisation. Results are shared every half year with the entire organisation.