A corporate culture defined by the founders
From the very beginning, Inato has placed crucial importance on corporate culture. After three years of existence and 20 employees, the founders initiated a reflection on their core values, starting with simple questions:
What do I like about the company today?
What will make me want to work here in 10 years?
What characterizes my way of working today?
Why involve the founders in defining the culture?
Kourosh Davarpanah, co-founder & CEO of Inato
The sustainability of the culture at Inato is based on an initiative driven by the founders themselves, rather than HR.
“What makes the culture last at Inato is that it is initiated by the founders and not by HR.” – Ségolène Philipon, People Lead at Inato.
Key steps to defining a strong culture
1. Involve a dedicated task-force
To structure their approach, Inato's founders formed a culture task-force composed of:
The founders, as project leaders.
A consulting group including the CTO, the CCS, a product manager, and the Lead HR.
2. Gather insights from the teams
Inato tailored its approach based on the cultures and preferences of the employees:
French employees: Sending a written questionnaire with simple questions such as:
What makes you happy at Inato?
What are the main characteristics of your work environment?
American employees: Live interviews conducted by the founders, considering their preference for oral exchanges.
3. Identify key principles
Qualitative and quantitative feedback helped identify common key principles.
4. Make informed choices
To avoid biases and balance the value system, Inato hired an external consultant. This consultant helped the team refine and select precise and sustainable words to represent the values.
5. Translate values into behaviors
Each value has been associated with specific behaviors and anti-behaviors to clarify their interpretation.
Inato's values
Inato's core values reflect both the company's identity and its ambitions:
🤺 Bold: Dare to aim high, take risks.
💪 Resilient: Embrace uncertainty, adapt to change, and learn from failure.
❤️ Caring: Dedicate yourself to people's success and well-being.
✍ Pragmatic: Always challenge your thinking by seeking external feedback, prioritize and iterate fast.
Actions to embody the culture daily
Rituals to integrate values into work
Quarterly kick-offs and retrospectives are key moments to connect values to the business. For example:
“The tech team succeeded in this project, it was very bold because...”
A daily decision-making tool
Inato's values serve as a compass for strategic and operational decisions:
Remote policy: The Caring value guided the decision to trust employees with their workplace.
Information transparency: The Pragmatic value led Inato to prioritize transparency as the default standard. Slack and Notion are used to share all discussions and document decisions.
Culture in HR processes
Culture-focused recruitment process
Recruitment at Inato consists of six steps, with a particularity: the behavioral interview (culture-fit) is placed before the technical test, even for technical positions.
Details of the behavioral interview:
Duration: 40 minutes of questions by Inato, followed by 20 minutes for the candidate's questions.
Objective: Allow Inato and the candidate to determine if they are culturally compatible.
Candidates are notified in advance to prepare their own questions. This ensures a reciprocal and engaging process.
Limiting biases:
Expected answers are defined for each value and adapted by level and department.
Interviews are recorded via BrightHire, enabling an objective review if necessary.
Onboarding and performance reviews
Onboarding: Values are presented to new arrivals with concrete examples.
Performance reviews: Conducted every six months, they evaluate both technical skills and alignment with values. Results influence compensation decisions.
Example of a question asked during peer reviews:
“Give me an example where XXX shared constructive feedback with you this semester.”
FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions about corporate culture
Why include values in performance evaluations?
It allows regular reminders of behavioral expectations and avoids cultural deviations.
How to structure a culture-fit interview?
Associate specific questions with each value and define expected answers to limit biases and ensure process fairness.
What is the impact of culture on attracting talent?
Well-defined and embodied values attract candidates who share the same principles and improve talent retention.
How to make values tangible on a daily basis?
Translate them into observable behaviors and link them to concrete decisions, such as HR policies or strategic decisions.
Key lessons
Culture must start with the founders. Their involvement ensures the sustainability and authenticity of values.
Adapt processes at each stage. The way insights are gathered must evolve with the size and diversity of teams.
Evaluate values as much as skills. Prioritizing culture in recruitment sends a strong internal signal.
Prepare expected answers. This limits biases in cultural evaluations.
Regularly remind values. Integrating them into semi-annual evaluations reinforces their anchorage.
Conclusion
Want to align your corporate culture with your mission?
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