KultureKo: Be human about culture, and eat your apples!

By Angelito Cabigao

If you had to recommend to your best friend a place to work for, would you choose Netflix or Sears?  I would bet you would pick Netflix (enjoys 78 percent Glassdoor.com rating) instead of Sears (35 percent on Glassdoor).

Aside from giving us Jo Koy specials to watch, Netflix provides a great workplace culture that many individuals and companies are watching.  You can check out Glassdoor.com and see reviews about how the culture involves cool people at work and a workplace that focuses on diversity. It’s no wonder why their culture deck has been viewed more than 5 million times and has been labeled “one of the most important documents to come out of Silicon Valley.” 

Companies can have their “Netflix culture” moment — or better —  and KultureKo is here to help with that.

I’ve been blessed to work with amazing companies with amazing people throughout my career. I have worked in companies, such as Hermes, Montclair State University, Coach USA, and TaskUs Philippines.  As a result of these experiences, I believe that more people should have these types of experiences through the success of workplace culture. 

KultureKo was formed serving as business consultants focused on workplace culture and Human Resources, but you can simply call us Kulturists.  We want to cultivate this complex idea of putting humans first in companies who share the same values.  We do this by assisting with company culture auditing and strategy, employee handbooks, learning and development sessions, health and wellness programs, recruitment, employee engagement, and having a down-to-earth coffee or beer chat.

One of the fundamental beliefs of KultureKo is that workplace culture is a requirement, not a recommendation, for success.  I have been in HR for more than 10 years and one of the most important  lessons that I have learned is that a lot of the disciplinary actions, including firing of employees, could have been prevented through a healthy workplace culture.  Tardiness, for example, could have been prevented if an employee carpooling system was in place. 

Your most tenured employee is always absent due to health issues, which could have been prevented if there was a health and wellness benefit at work.  An attitude problem that caused an employee to get fired may have been prevented if a one on one coaching session to sort issues out  was done when the problem first started. 

The employee suffers and so does the company, which is something we don’t want to see happen. In fact, according to Oxford Economic and Unum,  it would cost $39,000 to replace an employee who is making a salary of $32,000.  If you translate that into a luxury car, you could buy a BMW X2  — with a full tank of gas — for that price.

We stick to our belief about being human in managing companies. We have partnered with some really cool clients from America, the Philippines, Canada, Australia, Israel, Singapore, and Hong Kong.  We met them through interactions at a bar after a few shots, by being co-speakers at a college learning event about tech, while having a haircut, catching up as neighbors walking their dogs, waiting for an elevator, travelling to a beach in the Philippines, and other random encounters.  We would not trade these great experiences with our clients for the world, and that’s what makes our relationship with our clients different.

We also stick to our belief about being human by focusing on communities.  Our first order of business was setting up an Anti- Human Trafficking event in order to help spread awareness of human trafficking and ways to assist victims.  We have been involved with over 20 speaking engagements, especially to help during COVID-19. Furthermore, we have partnered with local businesses and farmers in Baguio, Philippines to provide healthy food options to community members in need of food supply.  After a surf session, we do beach clean-ups in La Union.  Lastly, we help raise environmental awareness,  including planting of trees.  We don’t want to stop there because we know we can do more and we will aim to do more!

I would like to share another belief of KultureKo, and this one deals with Apples.

Remember the Apple iPod Shuffle, a once trending item that is now largely forgotten?  Unlike the Apple iPod Shuffle, culture is a trend that should never phase out. Similar to Apple iPhones, culture has to consistently keep up with the times in order to stay trending, appeal to the people, and help keep the business going.  Be human about culture, and eat your apples!