You can offer the best compensation package in your industry and still lose your best people. I've seen it happen across every role I've held in this industry, from managing HCM implementations at UKG to leading professional development as Align's Director of Enablement, to my current role as CHRO. Over 25 years in human capital management has taught me one thing above everything else: people don't leave jobs because of money. They leave because of culture. Building a high-performance culture is the only sustainable answer.
According to a SHRM report on global workplace culture, employees who rate their organization's culture as good or excellent are nearly four times more likely to stay with their employer. On the other side, more than half of employees who rate their culture poorly say they are actively looking for a new job or plan to start soon.
At Align HCM, we've learned that culture isn't a nice-to-have. It's a competitive advantage. Building it takes more than putting values on a wall. It takes intentional systems, dedicated people, and a willingness to make culture part of every decision, starting with how you hire.
Culture Is Not an Accident
A true high-performance culture is one where people do their best work because they want to, not because they are afraid of what happens if they don't. It's built on clear expectations, mutual trust, strong leadership, and a shared sense of purpose.
Research published in the Cogent Business and Management journal found that organizational culture has a direct and measurable impact on employee behavior, workplace dynamics, and overall performance. The study identified key dimensions of strong cultures, including innovation, teamwork, result orientation, and involvement. When these elements are present, employees are more engaged, more productive, and more likely to stay.
At Align, we don't leave culture to chance. We've defined exactly what our culture stands for, built dedicated roles around protecting it, and created structured processes to make sure every new hire strengthens it.
The Four Pillars of Align's Culture
Every strong culture needs a foundation. Ours is built on four values that guide how we work, how we hire, and how we show up for each other and our clients every day. And what is most important about these values is they were defined by our Aligners. They represent what means the most to our team members and embody how they show up to work every day, not what they were told they should value.
Helping Each Other Succeed. This is the starting point. We're a team-first organization. That means collaboration isn't optional. It means when someone on your team is struggling, you step in. When a colleague has a different working style than yours, you find a way to make the partnership work. We look for people who lead with empathy, who value teamwork over individual credit, and who genuinely want the people around them to be successful. Collaboration is key.
Improving Organizational Effectiveness. We don't settle for “the way we've always done it.” We encourage every Aligner to bring a problem-solving mindset. If a process isn't working, say something. If a system could be more efficient, propose a solution. We want people who are proactive about improvement and who take ownership of making Align better every day.
Striving for Personal and Professional Growth. This one is personal for me and something I'm most proud of. With the support of my team, we've built a professional development curriculum and make sure every Aligner has the tools, education, and support needed to grow in their career. That work laid the groundwork for what we now deliver through Align Academy, our internal training program backed by over $2 million in investment and a team of four full-time coaches. The company's investment, though, is only half of the equation. We look for people who actively seek feedback, who embrace constructive feedback as a growth opportunity, and who are committed to their own development.
Delivering a Wow Client Experience. Having spent years managing enterprise HCM implementations, I know firsthand how much the client experience depends on the people doing the work. Our clients trust us with some of the most complex, high-stakes projects in human capital management. That trust is earned through exceptional service. We look for people who are client-focused, emotionally intelligent, flexible, and relentless about delivering outcomes that exceed expectations.
These four values aren't just words on a slide deck. They're the criteria we use to evaluate every candidate who walks through our door and what our Aligners embody every day.
Culture Ambassadors: The People Who Protect Our Culture
One of the most important decisions we've made at Align HCM is creating a dedicated Culture Ambassador program. A Culture Ambassador is a champion of our organizational values who promotes a positive environment by leading by example, fostering trust and recognition, and actively engaging with others. These individuals help shape and sustain the culture that drives our employee experience.
This isn't a ceremonial title. Every year, a cohort of Aligners are selected to serve a term as Culture Ambassadors. During that term, they take on specific responsibilities that directly impact how we hire, how we welcome new team members, and how we keep our Aligners connected.
Culture Ambassadors participate in the recruiting process, sharing our culture with candidates and conducting Culture Interviews to assess cultural fit. They welcome new hires and support their onboarding journey, helping them get to know Align and their fellow Aligners from day one. They organize events and activities that promote engagement and bring some fun into the workday. They even design swag for the team. These are real, hands-on responsibilities that keep culture visible and active across the organization.
What makes a great Culture Ambassador isn't just enthusiasm. It's a set of specific attributes. Ambassadors live our values daily, embodying them in their actions and interactions. They actively work to connect others to our mission and vision. They demonstrate collaboration, empathy, and open communication, creating an inclusive environment. They build relationships across teams to advocate for and reinforce our culture. They share stories of value-aligned behaviors that strengthen our collective identity and cultural pride.
As we've grown across the United States, Canada, and the Philippines, the Culture Ambassador role has become essential. It's easy to maintain culture when you're 20 people and everyone knows each other. It's a lot harder when you're scaling quickly, hiring across geographies, and onboarding people into a remote-first environment. Culture Ambassadors make sure that no matter how fast we grow, the culture that makes Align special doesn't get diluted.
The Culture Interview: Hiring for Values, Not Just Skills
Most companies interview for technical skills and experience. We do that too. We also run a separate, dedicated Culture Interview for every candidate. This is a structured conversation designed to assess whether a candidate's values, behaviors, and working style align with our four cultural pillars.
The Culture Interview isn't a casual conversation or a gut-feel exercise. We use a standardized set of behavioral questions, each one mapped to a specific value, with a consistent rating scale that ensures every candidate is evaluated fairly and objectively. Interviewers rate candidates on a scale from one to five, using clear indicators that define what an exceptional, strong, satisfactory, weak, or unsatisfactory response looks like.
For example, when we assess a candidate on “Helping Each Other Succeed,” we ask them to describe a time they collaborated with someone who had a very different working style. A top-rated response includes specific details about the challenge, how they adapted, the impact on the team, and a reflection on why collaboration matters.
When we assess “Delivering a Wow Client Experience,” we ask candidates to walk us through a difficult client interaction. The best candidates share detailed stories about navigating complexity, staying composed under pressure, and turning a challenging situation into a stronger client relationship.
This approach does two things. First, it protects our culture by making sure we're only bringing in people who share our values. Second, it respects the candidate's time and decision-making process. The Culture Interview gives candidates a transparent look at who we are and what we expect. It's a two-way evaluation. If our values don't resonate with them, it's better for both sides to figure that out before an offer is made, not six months into the job. The right candidate should be choosing us just as much as we're choosing them.
Why This Approach Works
We've got the data to prove this works. Align has earned a 4.9 out of 5 rating across more than 100 reviews on Raven Intelligence, with a 93% “likely to rehire” score and a 9.5 out of 10 partner satisfaction rating. Those numbers aren't just a reflection of our technical expertise. They're a reflection of our culture.
Research from MIT Sloan Management Review found that a toxic company culture is the single strongest predictor of employee attrition, ten times more important than compensation. Gallup's research shows that managers account for 70% of the variance in team engagement. We take those numbers seriously. That's why we invest in leadership development, why we created Align Academy, why we built the Culture Ambassador program, and why we run a dedicated Culture Interview for every hire. These aren't nice-to-have programs. They're the infrastructure that makes high performance possible.
What HR Leaders Can Learn From This
You don't need to copy our exact playbook. If you're an HR leader trying to build a high-performance culture, there are a few principles worth taking away.
Make culture someone's job. Culture doesn't maintain itself. You need dedicated people whose responsibility includes protecting and growing your culture.
Interview for values, not just skills. Skills can be taught. Values are much harder to change. Build a structured process for evaluating cultural alignment, with clear criteria and consistent scoring.
Define your values and live them. Identify the three to five values that matter most to your organization. Then make sure those values show up in how you hire, how you manage, and how you make decisions. If your stated values and your lived values don't match, your people will notice.
Invest in growth. Employees who have access to development opportunities have 34% higher retention rates. When both leaders and organizations actively support skill building, employees are nine times more likely to still be working there a year later, according to the O.C. Tanner 2024 Global Culture Survey.
Listen and act. The same research found that when employees believe their organization took their feedback into account, one-year retention increased by more than 300%. Asking for feedback isn't enough. You need to act on what people tell you.
Culture Is the Competitive Advantage
Employee expectations have shifted permanently. People want more than a paycheck. They want purpose, growth, flexibility, and a workplace where they're treated with respect. Organizations that fail to meet those expectations will keep losing their best people to competitors who do.
Building a high-performance culture isn't a one-time project. It's an ongoing commitment that requires attention, investment, and leadership at every level. The payoff is worth it. Lower turnover, higher engagement, better performance, and a reputation that makes top talent come to you.
At Align HCM, culture isn't something we talk about once a year at a company meeting. It's woven into how we hire, how we develop our people, how we serve our clients, and how we grow. It's the reason we've been able to grow while maintaining a 4.9-star reputation. It's also the reason the best consultants in HCM want to work here.
If you're ready to align your people strategy with the culture your organization deserves, connect with our team to start the conversation.
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