Beyond The Foosball Table: Company Culture and Workforce Engagement
Chevron’s CEO, Mike Wentworth, had a problem: his workforce was too “nice.” According to a report done by McKinsey, Chevron workers were frustrated. They felt that the company lacked innovation and had an unclear strategy. Something needed to change, and according to McKinsey’s findings, culture was key.
Netflix has long been known for their emphasis on freedom with responsibility, placing a high value on attracting the best and brightest. Just like Chevron, they rejected unilateral top down decision making. But unlike Chevron in the past, Netflix also emphasized tough love when necessary. When Netflix faced a downturn in the market, it rebounded by doubling down on a culture that employees valued, and saw as integral to their own purpose in work and life.
At BrandCulture, we’ve long believed in the power of culture to shape company success and the rewards to employees and shareholders alike that result. Indeed, we believe in this nexus so strongly we put “culture” in the name of our agency. Here’s what we can learn from Netflix’s consistency and Chevron’s move away from its signature laid-back California culture towards a more sharp-elbowed Texan approach. Although that’s not the right answer for every workforce engagement strategy, it underscores why you need to take a closer look at culture to make sure your workers can launch your organization towards a more sustainable strategy for long-term growth.
Nice Guy Culture (Sometimes) Finishes Last
Chevron had long been known as the quintessential California oil company. But just as it shaped the economic tides, Chevron’s Californian employees had a powerful effect on the organization’s workforce culture, which was known for being laid back, open-minded and collaborative above all else, leading Chevron to develop a less cutthroat company culture than their other competitors.
While this position had historic benefits, McKinsey found that present-day employees felt it was time to tamp down on Chevron’s reputation as the good guy in the room, which some felt was impeding their growth in the marketplace. But how could they maintain their company values while pushing themselves to a new stage of growth? The answer was cultural change.
At Netflix, the openness of California culture was also key, but there is less of an emphasis on niceness. Confrontation and tough conversations are non-negotiable. Withholding dissent and disagreement is tantamount to being disloyal to Netflix and is a central component of the company’s 124 page culture deck. Employees are also expected to disclose their own missteps and mistakes in a process known as “sunshining.” This makes the Netflix culture purposively polarizing, but employees always know their north star behind all decisions advancing the company’s best interests rather than being the nice guy in the room. As a result, when challenges arise their team is more than ready to meet them
When The Gloves Come Off
Seeking to compete with its long-time rival, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, is becoming both leaner and a great deal meaner. Part of that means ditching their California good vibes culture and making the move to rough and tumble Texas – perhaps to be inspired by the hit Paramount series Landman. Chevron has established close ties with the Trump administration and seems set on moving away from its collaborative, laid-back culture in order to establish its credo as a major player in the oil game. Texas Chevron is going to look a little different. Aside from cutting 20% of their total workforce, Chevron is also committed to making the changes the McKinsey report identified as vital to revamping their workplace culture. It’s still important to remain open to good ideas from unexpected quarters, but Chevron has also realized that there needs to be a sharper focus on delivery.
At Netflix, the pandemic boom years led to a slump, with the company hitting a rough patch as its fortunes slowed in 2022. But instead of pivoting like Chevron did, Netflix doubled down on what worked about their culture and using it as a starting point for bold new initiatives like launching an ad-based subscription model, cracking down on password sharing, expanding into videogames and live sports, launching a Broadway musical and even opening experiential “Netflix Houses.” These new initiatives emerged in a growth environment, reinvigorating and reinforcing the strength of their company culture.
With the U.S. workforce engagement hitting a ten-year low, it’s clear that changes like these are going to be essential for pulling workforces together and incentivising more productive behavior. If Chevron is going to become more sharp-elbowed, they need the corporate culture to match and that means pulling the right strings to shift symbolic influence in a truly meaningful way, like Netflix so successfully managed to do.
Symbolic Influences are Central to Your Success
When we think about workforce engagement and building a company culture, all too often, soft perks capture all the attention. Think foosball and ping pong tables in the break room, free snacks in the fridge, the kind of soft aesthetic touches that characterized the boom startup years. But the truth is, culture is far more than perks. A strong culture is fundamental, which means that your environment reflects your culture rather than creates it.
For Chevron and other companies looking to strengthen their company culture to boost workforce engagement, the secret is symbolic influence. But that doesn’t mean overly relying on the soft power of these signifiers. Instead, a strong culture builds from the ground up. Structure, systems and processes matter and send a powerful message to your workforce about what you expect from their level of performance and what they can expect from your organization in return.
Culture is all about alignment or “fit,” as it’s known. When a high-performance culture is both commonly understood and cogently expressed, prospective (and current) employees can decide whether they’re up for challenge or whether they would be more at home in a less relentless workplace. For Chevron, that came at the cost of relocation, transforming their nice-guy Californian image into hardscrabble Texas tough. Netflix held strong, leaning into a powerful culture that sent a message stakeholders could agree on. Your org doesn’t need to go that far, and these types of organizational cultures are not right for everybody… or even most people. But as the world watches what Chevron’s realignment does to their market share, it’s worth considering the lesson that deliberately stewarding culture vs. simply allowing it to arise and meander organically does matter, especially when workforce engagement is on the line.
About BrandCulture
BrandCulture is a branding agency with offices in Atlanta, Barcelona, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco that brings together the disciplines of strategic branding and culture building to help organizations develop meaningful, enduring brands. We believe the most powerful brands are born from strong cultures, and we partner with leadership teams to ensure their Shared Purpose is lived from the inside out—across employees, experiences and every expression of the brand
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