Why we're shifting from values to behaviors at TestGorilla

I’m a firm believer in the importance of culture. TestGorilla’s culture is at the center of who we are and what we do, but it’s also crucial to our success. We have big ambitions – to democratize opportunity and place 1 billion people in dream jobs – and we need to build a strong culture to reach them. And, as Peter Drucker famously said, “culture eats strategy for breakfast”. 

Our company values have been an important part of defining and shaping our culture so far. They have become well-integrated and alive in our company culture, which is something I’m very proud of. But they’ve not been static: we’ve adjusted them before (because a culture is a living, changing thing), and the time has come again for us to evolve our values.

From values to behaviors

This time, they’re undergoing a bolder evolution. In fact, we’ve shifted away from values entirely. Instead, we’ve introduced behaviors.

Head to our careers page for more details on what each means.

Why?

This is a radical move for us. Let me explain the thinking behind it.

1. We’re building a high-performing culture

We’re building a high-performing culture at TestGorilla, and, over time, we’ve developed a clearer idea about what makes someone high performing in our workplace. 

Though we were using our values in performance reviews, there was a disconnect between our values and our actual expectations of high performing behaviors, which wasn’t fair. ‘Dive deep’, for example, was not captured in our values, but it’s a behavior we cherish and want to encourage. We want to set clear expectations so our people know how to be successful at TestGorilla. Measuring performance against behaviors, rather than values, is helping us do this.

2. Values are theoretical, behaviors are actionable

Although 72% of companies have values, only 23% of US employees strongly agree that they can apply their organization’s values to their work. Behaviors are actionable, with less room for interpretation. 

Our teams at TestGorilla weren’t feeling confident about how to apply our shared values to their work – sometimes the values were too abstract, or were only specific to certain seniorities or functions in the business. Behaviors are far easier to align with and apply to your work. We now have a useful framework of genuinely actionable behaviors that we’ve made sure can apply to everyone at TestGorilla.

3. Behaviors are more inclusive. Come as you are!

Finally, can a company really have values? 

Values are personal. They assume ways of being. We have a diverse team and we want people to come as they are – imposing values or ways of being (and then measuring performance against them) counters this. Bring your own values and ways of being! What unites us is our ways of doing, or behaving. Shifting to behaviors will help us create a more authentic and inclusive culture together.

Concrete behaviors > abstract values

To be clear, we’re not abandoning our principles. Certain values, like acting with integrity, have become so well integrated in our team because of what TestGorilla stands for; our vision for equality of opportunity and our mission to place 1 billion people in dream jobs. They’re part of TestGorilla’s DNA and we exercise them every day, and the behaviors we’ve chosen are derived from our values. 

What’s important is that we now have concrete behaviors that will guide our high-performance culture and help us achieve our ambitions. Values are abstract, and the majority of employees feel they can’t apply values to their work. We want to change that, while ensuring that everyone can show up with their own values at TestGorilla. 

We come as we are, connected by our mission and vision, and united by shared behaviors.

Thank you to everyone at TestGorilla who’s embraced our values so far. Our culture really is something special, and I’m excited for us to embrace these behaviors (many of which I already see in our everyday!). If you like the sound of our culture and want to join us, check out our careers page. We’re hiring and we’d love to meet you.