What is Culture?
A set of values and beliefs that helps define the behavior of people at the organization! Something that provides an Uplerite unique identity and in every decision we make, we exemplify these values.
Why is culture important?
Culture is the identity of the company. What is acceptable and what is unacceptable behavior within the organization. It defines what to reward and what to punish!
Especially in remote, this is the single most important aspect that binds the organization together and gives a sense of belonging to Uplers.
At Uplers, we have Core Values and Non-negotiable Values that are more than just words! It's Uplerism, our way of life.
1. Core Value
Gives us an identity.
1. Non-negotiable Values
Gives us our existence.
CORE VALUES
These values are expected behavior that gives Uplers an identity. We want all Uplerites to show that behavior in their day to-day actions. The more aligned one is to these values, the nearer one would be to the Uplers’ culture.
BE EMPATHETIC
Why?
At Uplers, we always strive to solve for the customer and the very root of identifying the problem lies in empathy. The nearer we get to the problem, the more likely the solution will be accurate.
It also ties to caring for other people and respecting their POV and interests.
While working remotely, we are always deprived of the physical presence of each other which may result in missing certain key aspects of the interaction and situation. Hence practicing empathy increases the likelihood of mitigating the same.
What does it mean?
Act with compassion and respect for coworkers, customers and all other stakeholders.
Listening well, being sensitive to the other’s context is what we encourage. Investing time in connecting with people personally goes a long way in a remote work context.
We also need to understand that empathy is not jumping to conclusions about how others feel. It is not dismissing what someone is feeling.
It is not about completely agreeing about what others think or feel – It is just about listening and acknowledging how others feel.
Do’s
- Trust others & the best intentions Leverage diversity & be sensitive to others’ context
- Invest time connecting personally with people
- Be helpful & understand other people’s POV Listen well & show you care for others’ well-being
- Be empathetic to your customers, colleagues & all other stakeholders
- Understand someone’s challenges & see how you can take action of some kind to better the situation
- Not just for leaders: Empathy needs to be demonstrated by each one of us
Don’ts
- Feel pity for someone else’s mis- fortune
- Jump to conclusions or dismiss others’ feelings
- Let go of accountability
BE CANDID
Why?
When you are direct and precise in your interactions, it leaves very little scope for misinterpretation. Hence being candid would ensure the utmost clarity in communication and bring alignment within the organization.
In a remote context, there are higher chances of misinterpretation and miscommunication. This is because we are deprived of observing body language, tone, etc. It also gives us a lesser scope of reconnecting to clarify and reassure. Hence being candid help avoid the same.
What does it mean?
Say what you mean and mean what you say!
It is important to respect others’ point of view even if you don’t agree with them. This will help build long-term relationships and communication will be more direct across the organization.
Does that mean I can go behind someone’s back and talk badly about them? No. It does not mean you can be disrespectful toward others.
Do’s
- Trust others & the best intentions Leverage diversity & be sensitive to others’ context
- Invest time connecting personally with people
- Be helpful & understand other people’s POV Listen well & show you care for others’ well-being
- Be empathetic to your customers, colleagues & all other stakeholders
- Understand someone’s challenges & see how you can take action of some kind to better the situation
- Not just for leaders: Empathy needs to be demonstrated by each one of us
Don’ts
- Feel pity for someone else’s mis- fortune
- Jump to conclusions or dismiss others’ feelings
- Let go of accountability
Take charge
Why?
We are a very result-focused organization that excels in delivering great results. To make this possible, we expect our people to step up and take ownership instead of waiting for instructions for obvious action.
While being remote, it becomes almost impossible to monitor or direct every action and move. Hence we expect our people to take charge and drive things independently.
What does it mean?
If you see the way, take charge! Own the outcome.
To be result-focused and take complete ownership of what you do is a way to go in a remote work setup!
While taking charge, never try to bulldoze your authority on someone.
Micromanaging = Killing the flexibility that remote work offers
Do’s
- Be result focused
- Thriving to succeed and achieving your goals
- Don’t depend on someone else to solve your problem
- Taking charge of everything under your span
- Don’t hold back if you’re capable of doing something outside your span too
- Taking the initiative to ask for feedback to get better
- If you have less on your plate, ask for more If you have more on your plate, delegate and prioritize to ensure quality doesn’t drop
Don’ts
- Bulldozing your authority on others
- Jumping to action without assessing the consequences Prioritizing yourself over everyone else
- Commiting things to the customer that you know can’t be delivered Making false promises to your people
- Micromanaging the team while trying to get things done
- Killing the flexibility remote working offers
Focus on the customer
Why?
At Uplers, the customer is at the center of everything that we do. Our customers are our clients and the talent in our Uplers Talent Network.
The success of us as an organization lies in the success of our customers. Hence we strive to solve for the customer and keep them at the center of everything we do.
Especially remotely, where we need to work independently, most dilemmas can be easily resolved by keeping the customer in the center and analyzing how a decision or action would affect them.
What does it mean?
Customers at the Center. People in Focus.
We don’t just sell our services and offerings. We solve the problem for the customer.
Solving for the customer > Team interest > Individual interest
Does that mean we need to please every customer or overcommit?
No. We commit only to things that we are confident of delivering.
Do’s
- Keep the customer at the center of all decisions while retaining focus on our people
- Proactively communicate to the customer – that will help increase trust
- Every customer is important and we seek to build a long-term relationship with the customer
- Strive to deliver excellence to your internal and external customers
- Focus on understanding the customer’s objectives, challenges & pain areas If you have become a trusted aide, then you have succeeded
- If a customer is disrespectful to an Uplers’ person, we can put our foot down and condemn such behavior
- Don’t just sell our services and offerings Solve the problem for the customer
Don’ts
- Agreeing with everything the customer says
- Committing to things because the customer is insisting
- Trying to please every customer and committing things we are not confident of delivering
- Ignoring our people while focusing on the customer
Respect data
Why?
Data never lies. At Uplers, we always make logical and informed decisions that are backed by accurate and robust data. This enables us to stay away from assumptions and perceptions and make an impact by solving what really needs to be fixed.
While remote, using data as a source of truth becomes of utmost importance. This enables us to have an independent workforce that knows what they are doing, how their success is measured and whether or not they are achieving their goal in the most objective way.
What does it mean?
Data is our best friend.
Decisions need to be empowered with data. Our credibility with the customer as well as our colleagues increases when we talk facts and share insights.
Some problems could be new and never solved before; then how do we make a decision? We might not have access to data 100% while solving new problems. In this case, our decision needs to be driven by gut and instinct.
Do’s
- We trust our people but we verify for transparency
- Get comfortable looking at data and drawing inferences
- The data could be ours or data and insights we can draw from the market
- Our credibility with the customer, as well as our colleagues, increases when we talk facts and share insights
- We might not have access to data 100% of the time to make decisions.
We will be solving a few problems that haven’t been solved before and there our decision needs to be driven by gut and instinct - Data help us personalize our communication and offerings to the customer
- To be able to look at and analyze the right data, we need to organize our data well
- Make data easily accessible to everyone in the company
- It will help decentralize making certain decisions
- Leverage systems for tracking and analyzing data
Don’ts
- Look at low quality data & in functional silos
- Derive incorrect inferences from the data we collect
- Weak and unreliable data collection
- Vague data analysis
Focus on growth
Why?
At Uplers, we focus on growing every day, becoming a better version of ourselves every time. This enables us to become a high-performance organization and increases our talent density as we move. It brings about progression for individuals and better outcomes for the organization.
What does it mean?
Forever be in the pursuit of growth!
Self motivation + Proactiveness + Embracing Change = Growth
Upskilling yourself is very important. Understanding what other teams do will help you deliver better together. In this process, Uplers will grow and you will grow.
Do’s
- Growth is about a lot of learning & upskilling!
- Be self motivated to improve
- Intelligence, skills, learning and creativity can all grow with time and experience
- Taking initiative, show the drive to continuously improve
- Being logical in your approach
- Embracing change, tackle challenges without fear of
- Learning from mistakes & move on
Don’ts
- Growth always mean a hike in pay
- Expecting someone to determine what you got to learn
- Wasting Uplers’ time and resources without thinking through and logically executing while trying new things
- Not delivering value or showing capability to take up higher roles
- Mindlessly challenging the status quo
NON-NEGOTIABLE VALUES
We live by our values and some things are non-negotiable for us. These form the very baseline of becoming a part of Uplers. There is zero tolerance at Uplers for any diversion from these values. Any deviation from the same results in the most severe of the implications.
INTEGRITY: Do the right thing even behind closed doors
At Uplers, integrity is paramount. We expect people to do the right thing. This helps us become an ethical business and bring a lot of credibility to everything that we say or do. Especially in remote, where everyone works remotely without close monitoring.
At Uplers -
- We are fair to people and give them their due
- We are reliable and dependable – we show up to work on time
- We express gratitude when other people help us
- We make and honor our commitments with integrity
- We take responsibility and accountability for our actions – good and bad
- We maintain the sanctity of all the data that we capture and use and don’t indulge in data theft or other data security issues
- We only speak the truth
RESPECT: Treat everyone with dignity
We value our people the most and it is paramount for us to make it a place where they are treated with respect and humility. People should feel valued and psychologically safe.
At Uplers -
- We are polite and courteous in all our interactions
- If we see disrespectful behavior anywhere in the organization, with anyone, we stand up for it and inform all people concerned
- We respect others’ boundaries and their values and principles
- We respect people’s time
- We respect everyone’s opinions and listen carefully to what they have to say – we may not agree but we genuinely listen and attempt to understand
- We respect people’s capabilities and give them work that challenges them to perform better
TRUST: We tell each other the truth – even when something is going wrong.
We trust each other fully and also make sure that we behave and speak in a manner that we can be trusted. The foundation of a great organization is the amount of trust that it has between people, teams, and departments. When you trust others and become trustworthy, there is no scope for second-guessing. Especially in remote, since we are distributed away from each other, mutual trust enables us to rely on each other and remove all blockages and bottlenecks.
At Uplers -
- While we are working remotely, we honor our commitments and are genuine in our contribution
- We admit when we don’t know something
- We admit when we are wrong; we take responsibility for failures
- If we say we will do it, we will do it
- If we are supposed to do it (as part of our role), we do it
- We trust everyone to operate with the best intentions unless otherwise proven
So we trust, but we verify for transparency
Culture fit > Everything else
For us, it is important to have people who fit our culture and can help us further it!
Our non-negotiable and core values stay constant at all points!
These values are part of the everyday life of all Uplerites!