How many corporate websites have you viewed, looking for what it’s REALLY like to work there? But instead, you read lots of shiny words, saying how perfect and amazing they are. We know that you’re not buying it. Neither do we.
I’m Laura, the Chief People Officer of Egress, and I’ve been leading People strategy in tech companies for over 20 years. So like you, I’ve seen my fair share of corporate websites and even helped write some of them. But this one is different.
Egress is founder-owned by Tony, CEO, and Neil, COO. When I started at Egress in January 2022, one of the first things they talked with passion about was their desire to make their values truly authentic and how they wanted them to be looked at afresh. That’s because they believe that if they are the right values, authentic and truly lived, they can make a huge difference to everyone who works here and send the message to people wanting to join us about what they can really expect.
Most companies have values that are mainly aspirational about how they would like to be, but in reality, they are usually a long way off. Tony, Neil, and the whole leadership team wanted Egress to be different. Yes, there is aspiration in there, but these are values we are challenging ourselves to live every day, right now.
The process
I went through a deep exercise with Neil and Tony, talking about their working and life experiences, and the values in others that have shaped them. Nothing was off the table – even their childhoods! I dug into what things truly matter to them and why. Our conversations were deeply personal and mainly based upon their 15+ year founder led careers at Egress. The people who had shone and why. The things that had made a huge difference to their success, and the behaviors that had been barriers to positive change.
After many hours of discussions and group sessions with the leadership team, four of their core values stood out strongly from everything else. And what was wonderful was that there was strong alignment across the whole leadership team. We felt these were the values that are deeply rooted in all of us and inform how we behave.
But we are also human and can stray off the path, so by articulating them clearly, we are giving permission to everyone who works at Egress to live them every day and hold us and each other accountable.
So you can understand their passion and dedication, I recently interviewed Tony and Neil about why they wanted to refresh our company values, the process we went through to do so, and what the values mean to them:
Our four values
Our four values stand for who we are and who we aspire to be every day.
DO THE RIGHT THING
We take our relationships very seriously. We care deeply about the experience of every employee and every customer. We have integrity, even when it’s uncomfortable, we do right by them.
BE BOLD
We step out of our comfort zones. Market leading innovation only happens when we try new things together, so we choose to be brave, fail fast, learn fast and celebrate our inevitable successes.
BE A BAR RAISER
We are customer obsessed. Our people stretch to seize every opportunity, pushing what’s possible to the next level, while remaining grounded and humble. Our fresh thinking and high standards ripple across teams, the business and beyond.
OWN IT
Despite our rapid growth and experience we’ve still got that grit and hustle. We’re driven to get the job done. We raise our hand. We do what we say. We finish what we start.
Hiring against these values
If you apply for a role at Egress, and we really hope you do (!), we will be looking for how well you fit with our values. Not because we have a narrow view of who should work here, but because we know how good it feels when you work somewhere where people share deep rooted values and beliefs, and how much better it can make you and the company as a whole.
We look forward to meeting you soon and hearing all about you and what you value.