Scaling Culture Without Losing Its Soul as Recognition Drives Growth Inside and Out

Welcome to the Vantage Influencers podcast. This podcast is sponsored by Vantage Circle, the simple and effective recognition platform for employee engagement.

Riha Jaishi: Hello, listeners. Welcome to the Vantage HR Influencers podcast. I'm your host, Riha, and today we have an exciting conversation lined up with Courtney King, senior vice president of people and culture at Beatbox. So, as you know, when companies scale, one of the toughest challenges is keeping the culture intact. So in this episode, we are going to dive into how recognition plays a pivotal role in maintaining authenticity and connection during periods of hypergrowth, and most importantly, how HR and leadership can lead the charge in preserving the company's core values. So welcome to the show, Courtney. It's a pleasure to have you with us today.

Courtney King: Hi, Riha. Thank you. It is a pleasure to be here. I was super excited for the opportunity.

Riha Jaishi: We are delighted as well. So just to kick things off. So can you briefly take us through your professional journey so far? I mean, our listeners and I are eager to learn about your journey.

Courtney King: Sure. So as you mentioned, I'm the senior vice president of people and culture at Beatbox Beverages. I have been with Beatbox Beverages almost four years. And prior to that, I've spent my 20 plus years career in the human resource discipline. I've worked for numerous companies, some large public companies, but also, or I would say a majority, mid-sized to smaller private equity companies. So I got my start in the human resource discipline just simply by chance. And how that happened is I come from a family of entrepreneurs. And in my early 20s, I had the privilege with assistance from my grandparents to be the owner and operator of a restaurant franchise. And during that time, so I was in college, I quit college, at least temporarily to kind of get my PhD in life. And so I ran the businesses, I was working front of house, back of house. And during that time, I noticed I had a real affinity for these things that I now know are human resource related task and strategy. And so I'm definitely shortening this story, but when I sold the businesses, I went back to school and I changed my major. I was a biology major. I definitely had a love of the sciences, but I changed my major, and got my undergrad and then graduate degree in human resources. And so that's how I got started. And that gave me enough credibility to get my foot in the door with the first HR job. And then, you know, things just progress from there. So that's an interesting piece of information as to how I got my start in human resources.

Riha Jaishi: Great, great, Courtney. That's such an inspiring venture, Courtney. Thank you so much for sharing your experience. So now with your permission, I would like to delve into our topic further, shall we?

Courtney King: Yeah, I would love to.

Riha Jaishi: Great. So scaling a business rapidly can be quite exciting, you see. But maintaining that very core of its culture throughout the process can be a significant challenge. So why do you really think companies struggle to preserve their culture during periods of hyper growth? What do you think?

Courtney King: So too many treat culture as an afterthought. So it's something that they say they will fix when they hit a certain milestone, such as like, we'll work on that when we hit 100 or 75 employees or whatever it may be. But by that point, your culture has already started to slip and it's too late. I also think that in hyper growth, it creates pressure for systems and speed. And if no one owns the culture, then other more urgent things crowd out the need to focus on culture. And one of the last things that I think about, just to illustrate culture and addressing culture early, when I started at Beatbox, I remember very distinctly a story that my boss and one of our co-founders told me. She said, so as many of the listeners may know, Beatbox is a Shark Tank company. And Mark Cuban invested in the brand. And I'll never forget when Amy said to me, as I was interviewing and after I was ultimately chosen for the role, when our three co-founders asked Mark Cuban, like, what is next for us? What should we focus on? He told them that now it was time to bring in someone whose job was dedicated to creating, shaping and growing the culture. And just to let the listeners know, we had less than 40 employees at that time. So we were very intentional about not creating or treating culture as an afterthought or waiting until the organization was too big to try to fix something that had already started slipping, as I mentioned earlier.

Riha Jaishi: Yeah. Courtney, the things and the example of Beatbox really serves here as an example. I mean, how we should really proceed ahead with the culture. And it's more about that delicate balancing act between the new processes and the systems. Basically, people are more tempted to prioritize speed over authenticity. And that is what organizations tend to overlook, that very elements that made the culture special in the first place. But your example serves differently. Beatbox really stands out in that.

Courtney King: No doubt. I think Beatbox, well, I say, I think I know Beatbox has the best company culture that I've ever had the privilege to lead and be a part of.

Riha Jaishi: Great. So moving ahead. So as companies tend to grow, it's very easy for recognition to be sidelined in favor of other priorities. Yes. However, you know, recognition is that one critical element in preserving the organization's culture. So what do you think, what is the role of the recognition in helping organizations maintain that authenticity as they scale high?

Courtney King: So recognition is your company's culture in action. It shows what the company truly values and not what's just written in a handbook or on a plaque on a wall for those of us that are in office. I also think that it builds trust. Employees believe the culture is real when they consistently see peers and leaders recognized. And then lastly, authentic recognition reflects the brand voice and values here at Beatbox. So it's not stiff. It's not overly corporate. It's fun and totally in tune with how we show up as a company.

Riha Jaishi: Okay. That's great. That really thing about brand voice and values being reflected through recognition. That's something to be noted. I really think for me and for the listeners out there, right? Recognition really serves as the cornerstone for maintaining that connection and maintain the engagement throughout the workforce, right?

Courtney King: Absolutely.

Riha Jaishi: Okay, great. So now as we move ahead, HR, as you know, HR plays a key role in shaping the company's growth strategy to ensure how the organizations expand, how their values become human centered and intact. So what kind of strategies can HR really use to balance structure and scalability while also keeping in touch and maintaining that human and authentic culture?

Courtney King: So first I would say that companies should anchor every process to one thing. So structure should enable people and not stifle them. And understanding the why is a basic tenet of adult learning. You want someone to do something. You want an adult to do something. They need to understand what the importance of that thing is to have buy-in. Also, I think building light frameworks. So think guidelines versus very rigid rules. So teams have the freedom, but again, freedom with guardrails. And you adjust and modify those as necessary, but not so often that processes change with the wind and without intention and a good reason. And then lastly, I say use tech to automate systems and scale HR operations. And that frees HR for the human work, like coaching and listening and onboarding and training, all those things that, you know, technology can't replace.

Riha Jaishi: That's a really great point you made there, you know, HR, since, you know, HR is the backbone of both that scalability and the cultural preservation. So it's all about creating the systems that work without really compromising the personal touch, like you just mentioned, right?

Courtney King: Yeah, absolutely. I know it's easy said, but I think it is something you have to be very careful and intentional when doing. And like we said, not forgetting the important touch points for human interaction. That's how you're going to build rapport with employees and build relationships with them. And that's the foundation of your culture as well.

Riha Jaishi: Absolutely. Absolutely. So as we move ahead, growth begins brings new systems and processes, but it's also essential that you remember that efficiency should never overshadow people. So as systems and processes evolve, how do you balance that efficiency with maintaining a people first culture?

Courtney King: So I think you hit the nail on the head earlier. So we have to gut check processes. Does it make life easier for the employees or just your HR team? And does it help the business achieve the business goals? Automate those repetitive tasks. But like we just said, keep the high touch moments personal. And a good example of that is for every birthday that an employee has and every work anniversary, we send them a handwritten card and a gift card in the mail. And, you know, I've evaluated that system or that process many times with my team and the greater organization, but I cannot tell you how many people, when they receive that, are so pleasantly surprised. And, you know, we get a lot of thanks, meaning the people in culture team get a lot of thanks, and recognition really makes people feel special to get a handwritten note, because, you know, that's kind of a dying art. People don't get things in the mail anymore that aren't either a bill or junk mail. And then the last thing I think about is collect feedback as you scale. Employees must flag when efficiency starts to feel transactional, but with the following caveat. So you must have built the trust with the employees to, A, know that they can be honest, like safe space, transparency, and B, that the company will actually do something with the feedback that employees provide.

Riha Jaishi: Absolutely. That's a great point about that personal touch, and the instance you stated about your company, about the handwritten notes, it really stands out. That truly shows what the sense of personal touch is about the people-first culture. You know, at the end of the day, it's all about the employees, the ones who make the systems work, right? So employees should be happy in the first place.

Courtney King: Absolutely. Happy employees, engaged employees do their best work.

Riha Jaishi: Absolutely true. So leaders have always been pivotal in incorporating recognition and shaping the culture to align with it. Now, according to you, in a rapidly growing company, how should leaders and managers model recognition and set the tone for the culture?

Courtney King: So recognition has to cascade from the top. So if leaders kind of start that process and model it, managers follow and employees believe it. Also, recognition should be specific and tied to tangible things, like success on a project and the significant impact of the project on the business, not simply "good job." Those type of sentiments tend to have less meaning for employees.

Riha Jaishi: Yes.

Courtney King: And then normalize recognition in team meetings, in your Slack, during your company all-hands meeting. So it becomes a daily rhythm and not a special event.

Riha Jaishi: Absolutely. These instances really show, really demonstrate the true power of recognition, that it lies not only as an annual event or something, but on a daily basis. And leadership here plays a really, really important role, right? So when leaders really, genuinely value recognition, it creates that kind of ripple effect throughout the organization, as is reflected in your organization. So moving on, real world examples often provide that level of best insight into how recognition practices can really drive meaningful engagement. So can you share a specific example where recognition practices has helped strengthen employee engagement at Beatbox?

Courtney King: Sure. So I have several, but I'll start with one. And if we have a little time, I can share some more. But we have a company summit every year, we bring all of our employees together. The summit is really cultural in nature, and we're looking to strengthen relationships and bonds between employees. But at that summit, we have peer nominated awards. And so employees can nominate their peers for a variety of different awards that we have. And one of those awards is the failing forward award. And so for this award, and any of the other award categories, the employee that has the most nominations wins, we bring that employee to the stage, we hit the nominations from their peers, and then we present them with a golden beatbox. And I think that tying that recognition to something like the failing forward award, we create a safe space for employees to fail, because we know that innovation comes out of failure. And so we've got this opportunity with dual purpose: the employee is getting recognition for the award category, and we're reinforcing things that are important to the business at that time as well. Another example I can think of, we do hiring manager of the quarter. So in short, our talent acquisition team tallies up scores and awards a hiring manager of the quarter. That is the hiring manager who has best followed the process for the best outcome in hiring a new employee. And so we do that to recognize and reinforce good practices. And it's a benefit for everyone: the hiring manager gets recognition, my talent acquisition team gets a better hiring process, and the candidate experience is a great experience.

Riha Jaishi: I must say, Courtney, this failing forward award that you mentioned just now, I mean, that really has stood out. You know, I mean, this particular recognition, it really gives that space to employees to really stand out, to experiment. Basically, there's no fear of failing, right? So that is something that motivates them to experiment and go beyond and think out of the box. So at the end of the day, like, what if I fail? No matter what, I'll get awarded for even trying it out. So, you know, that motivation level goes a level high, right?

Courtney King: Sure, sure. And, you know, it creates that safe space for, like you said, creativity. And, yes, so then another simple thing to think about, we create, like every Friday, employees can shout out another employee in Slack. We tie it back to a company value. So they select a company value, and then they recognize how that team member, I say team member, it can be any employee, it doesn't have to be on their team, has exemplified a value that reinforces the company values, as well as provides engagement and recognition for the employee being nominated. So those are just a few ideas that we found that work well with us. And yeah, I think you just have to figure out what makes sense for your culture.

Riha Jaishi: Exactly. Absolutely. These are some true examples that have really helped your company. And I'm sure the listeners out there have something to learn from this. And I mean, the leaders out there, HRs out there, they can really look forward to these instances and actually implement them in their organizations for a better run, you see?

Courtney King: Yeah, it even, you know, even allows me to innovate, right? Like I've had some failed ideas with engagement and recognition. But the good news is, it's okay to fail. And I take my learnings and we move on, and hopefully we come up with something even better.

Riha Jaishi: Absolutely. So true. Great, Courtney. Okay. Thank you. So looking to the future now, what should these fast-growing companies focus on to ensure their culture remains strong and scalable? What do you think? Like, you have given an example, but apart from that, anything?

Courtney King: Okay. Bake culture into the systems early. Culture is not a bolt-on for later. Invest in leadership development, because remember, your managers are culture carriers. And then keep your culture evolving. So when I think about Beatbox, what worked for engagement and recognition, and just our culture in general, what worked when we were 40 employees doesn't work today when we're almost 300. So your core values can scale if you continuously listen along the way. So again, that culture has to ever evolve. And then staying true to your core values will allow you to scale that culture, as long as you listen and adapt. And then I guess the last thing I would say is just to reinforce: don't expect the culture to be the same. A lot of people, you know, you hear how do we keep the culture intact, or how do we make sure it doesn't change. And the truth is, if it doesn't change, then something's broken. There's no way your culture can be the same when your headcount 10x's.

Riha Jaishi: Absolutely. That's a great point. I mean, this thing about, you know, things change, culture will change, but yes, staying true to your core values, that is what can, you know, bring the change. And that's how you can really keep your culture intact. I mean, not to give it all up, but something of how you began with it. You can just stay true to it, at least with the core values, right?

Courtney King: Yes, certainly.

Riha Jaishi: Okay. So Courtney, we have finally come to the end of the podcast. So before winding it up, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your incredible insights, Courtney. And it's been a pleasure hearing such an interesting perspective on how companies can attain that growth without really losing their culture, and how recognition becomes a central contributor here. So we really appreciate your time and your expertise. And I'm sure our listeners are heavily inspired by your expertise and are walking away with a wealth of information to ponder.

Courtney King: The pleasure is mine. Again, thank you for inviting me. And yeah, I hope that my experience and what I've learned in this journey can help the listeners as well.

Riha Jaishi: Absolutely, absolutely. And to our listeners out there, thank you for tuning in. We hope you found today's conversation as enlightening as we did. So until next time, take care and we'll see you soon.

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