A company’s culture has the potential to make or break someone’s career experience. We spend so much of our waking lives at work, and a company with toxic people and processes can send us into a downward spiral and seriously affect our performance and general wellbeing. This sentiment tends to radiate throughout the company, leading to a negative feedback loop.
Any way you slice it, starting a new job is a tense time, no matter how outgoing or confident you may be. You might be nervous about getting along with your teammates, or worried about making mistakes. You have to learn a whole new set of processes, tools, and ways of communicating. If you’re a high performer, you’ll generally want to make a good impression at your new company.
It’s never easy being the new kid on the block, but at Periphery, we’ll do everything in our power to invite you into our circle and make your transition as smooth as possible! We have a one-of-a-kind company culture that is built upon support, inclusivity, transparency, and an always-be-learning mindset — and we can’t wait to share it with you.
We believe building our business upon a solid company culture means cascading success for every individual in every department. After all, we’re one of Canada’s Top Growing Companies according to The Globe and Mail. But what does a great culture mean to us exactly?
We believe if we take care of our team, they’ll take care of us
Research has shown that when you treat your employees well, they treat clients better. Happy employees interact better with the outside world. It’s a top priority for every single person on our team to feel heard and supported in whatever they do. Some tangible benefits we offer:
- Remote-first model
- 3 weeks of paid vacation to start
- Personal & professional development opportunities (more details on this below)
- Full health benefits package
- Monthly Uber Eats & Rides credits
- Monthly phone/internet bill credits
- Work computer and equipment you can borrow from the office
- Home office supplies credit
- Wellness credits increasing with tenure
- Department team bonding credits
- Your birthday off
- Regular Wellness Wednesdays
- Annual company retreat
- Monthly team activities like dinners, laser tag, paint nights, game nights, etc
- Companywide lunch & learns and workshops
- Regular compensation reviews
- Weekly surveys for feedback
ManagersDirect Supports
We regularly revisit our team benefits and perks to ensure they are 1) competitive in the industry, and 2) still keeping our team happy! Happy employees have several benefits:
Increased creative output
According to research, happiness is a primary contributor to creativity. Happiness increases a person’s mental flexibility and promotes the positive perception of new challenges.
Better customer service
A happy and satisfied team member is more motivated and engaged with their work, serving our clients with enthusiasm. Research shows that having a good company culture increases revenue 4x!
Long-term tenure
Happy employees who feel engaged, cared for, and presented with growth opportunities in a supportive environment tend to stay put. This is good for everyone involved!
It’s important to note company culture goes beyond team lunches and wellness credits. It’s defined by truly caring about our team and their wellbeing, psychological safety in the workplace, and listening to feedback and acting on it.
Some other reasons why our culture rocks
Personal & Professional Development
We mentioned this above, but we wanted to give it its own section since we’re so passionate about it. We value our team, and we want to help them grow in their own unique way. We strongly encourage and offer grants for courses and seminars for our team to upskill in areas that align with the company’s goals.
In 2021, our entire company went through a leadership course which included a full day of training each month. We got real with each other, and it was a truly transformative experience — we continue to use the tools we learned in that workshop to improve our communication and leadership skills together.
We have annual performance reviews designed to enable our team to recognize their achievements over the previous year and identify areas for improvement and a plan of action to address them. These are in the form of self-evaluations, two-way feedback between team members and direct supports, a self-created development plan, and a review meeting. Feedback on these forms is absolutely not designed to blindside our team or make them feel inadequate — development areas should already be known through regular feedback provided in one-on-ones with direct supports.
Transparency
We promote transparency across the entire company, from CEO and directors to interns and contractors. There are no written or implied hierarchy guidelines if you have something to say. Ask your question with genuine curiosity, or deliver your feedback respectfully, and Periphery’s leaders are more than happy to help and respond. They do everything in their power to be fully transparent with the team about business decisions.
Everyone has a right to be heard. We connect and communicate clearly and ensure everyone knows their accountabilities and has everything they need to succeed before any task assignment. We have a team mindset and design alliances together.
Transparency helps us retain our team members, and according to studies, 90% of millennials stated that they would work for a company for ten years if the employer was transparent about remuneration and status progress.
We’re not just colleagues – we’re friends too
According to Team Building Statistics, Canada is in fourth place after Singapore, the US, and Australia in virtual team building. While we mostly love it, there are some downsides to working remotely, such as the lack of casual impromptu conversations over lunch or at the coffee machine. To continue living by our value Connectivity, we regularly go out and have fun together to build that team camaraderie that’s so important. We hold monthly team events such as dinners, drinks, karaoke, BBQ boats, hikes, and more, as well as provide team bonding activity credits to internal departments to spend however they like. On Slack, we send each other memes, pet pictures, and express our frustrations in the #yelling channel. We put filters on our webcams for team meetings, and share new restaurants we discovered over the weekend.
Millennials prefer culture and people fit in a job environment more than anything else. These activities allow our people to feel connected as a team, which ultimately increases productivity.
Inclusivity & diversity
Diversity to us means not just our backgrounds. It means our unique perspectives and ideas on the ways we work. Our team of Canadians and immigrants, introverts and extroverts, 10+ years of experience and new graduates, serious and silly, and everyone in between is what gives us a competitive edge. We don’t hire for culture fit — we hire for culture enhancement. We value new ideas and perspectives from all walks of life that shake up the status quo. Each person brings something unique to our company, and we embrace each other’s special gifts and support each other through our weaknesses. Regardless, you can feel safe bringing your whole self to work!
Rather than treating our team how we want to be treated, instead we use the platinum rule — we treat each person how they want to be treated. This is a lesson in empathy and compassion, and while we hire people for their skills, we also strongly believe in the importance of character. If you don’t fulfill every requirement in a job description, that is okay, as long as you are ambitious and determined to learn what you don’t know, we’ve got your back.
Rest, recharge and acceptance
One of our values is tenacity which means we’re definitely high achievers, but we strongly enforce the importance of balance and taking time off to recharge. We know agency life has a reputation for being high demand, and although we do go through busy periods, we encourage our team to recognize when it’s time to log off. Nobody does their best work when they’re burnt out.
On a similar note, we’re all human and imperfect. To grow, we expect you to stretch yourself. This means you will make mistakes, but if you can learn from them and do better next time, then we count that as a win. Public shaming and angry scolding when mistakes are made fosters a toxic culture of fear and stunts the growth of both the team and company. We have a culture of open feedback and exercise tact and compassion when giving and receiving feedback with the intent to help each other grow. Learning opportunities aplenty!
We are always looking out for ways to improve ourselves and our company. We take responsibility for our actions, whether successful or fallen short of expectations. We move forward to tackle other challenges as better versions of ourselves.
Gratitude & recognition
At Periphery, we have an attitude of gratitude. Gratitude at work is known to increase productivity. According to a survey, only 27% of Canadian companies recognize their staff. Every Friday afternoon we have a company-wide meeting where we send shoutouts to our team members who went above and beyond that week. Celebrating small wins along the way motivates everyone to keep working harder and move forward to achieve bigger things.
Final Words
Our mission is to bridge the gap between Western businesses and Chinese consumers while developing a meaningful work environment to motivate our team to discover and achieve their own personal and professional goals.
As one of the fastest-growing companies in Canada, we are always looking for incredible and inspiring people to join us. If Periphery sounds like somewhere you could take your career to the next level, we invite you to join us in this exciting journey.
Check out our current openings and apply today — we can’t wait to hear from you ❤️
