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"One of the 50 most innovative companies (Fast Company 2017 & Forbes 2016)
One of the top 2 most admired software companies in the world (Fortune 2017)
Listed among the 100 best companies to work for 17 years in a row (Fortune 2017)
One of the 100 best global brands (Interbrand 2017)
One of the 100 most sustainable global companies (Corporate Knights 2016)
One of the top 3 greenest companies among 500 U.S. listed companies (Newsweek Green Rankings 2015)
The world's first company to obtain four Platinum-level certifications in energy and environmental design (US Green Building Council)"
Adobe's corporate culture boasts these dazzling awards.
Adobe — which has presented new inventions in visual communication like Photoshop and PDF (Portable Document Format) — has also created new inventions in the HR and organizational culture areas.
A few years ago, an Adobe researcher felt that graphic designers needed a new technology to easily identify, compare, and choose typefaces. His idea was to replace the tedious method that took a long time to choose a typeface with a much faster and more accurate application. He created a prototype product called DeepFont. But the machine learning algorithm was not accurate. Customers wanted accuracy of over 90%, but the prototype's accuracy was only 50%.
His team, after several attempts using other technologies, eventually pushed the tool's speed and accuracy up to the target level. In any other company, the initially failed DeepFont would probably have been thrown in the trash, and the researcher and team might have suffered damage to their professional careers. But Adobe took a different approach. Adobe's vice president of innovation, Mark Randall, explains: "For the first person to try a new product or feature to fail is actually ideal. Through this, you learn what the customer wants or expects, and you learn how to respond wisely."
Adobe has been creating an invention called "Kickbox" and providing it to employees since 2013. It is a kind of innovation toolkit guiding a six-stage process for converting new ideas into promising services and products. Employees who request a Kickbox receive a Red Box containing candy bars and snacks, a Starbucks gift card, and a debit card preloaded with $1,000. An innovation guide for moving ideas to execution is also included, along with a notebook if needed. There is also the opportunity to participate in a two-day innovation workshop and receive coaching and mentoring help.
Adobe researchers demonstrating immersive VR experiences
"We do not require Kickbox recipients to submit receipts. Whether you buy clothes, drink beer, or attend a concert, you can spend the money where you want. Everything is grounded in trust."
At most companies that have struggled with innovation for a long time, only a small number of people inside the company have access to ideas. Furthermore, traditional innovation processes generally treat repetition and duplication as waste and do not allow for them in the budget. This program — which pays employees in advance for their ideas and gives them the opportunity to explore what they want — has no participation limit.
"One of the challenges every company faces is innovation through employee motivation. One of the goals of the Kickstart program — symbolized by Kickbox — is to 'remove obstacles' that block originality and innovation. We are eliminating obstacles by allowing free access for anyone to use." Once employees create a prototype based on their idea and reach the six-stage level, they can get a 'Blue Box' needed for actual commercialization and investment.
To date, more than 1,000 employees have taken on challenges in this program, and 23 of those ideas have received actual investment. It is hard to be sure that investing $100,000 to move one idea to a prototype will succeed. But if you imagine 100 employees creating 100 prototypes with the same capital, you can see the program's potential. Vice President of Innovation Mark Randall explains the influence Kickstart has on the organization's culture as follows:
"Of the 17,000 employees worldwide, only about 10% have used Kickbox and attended the workshop. But this 10% is a magical number. When you arrive at the company, everyone knows who is trying to innovate. Even people whose jobs do not require innovation are exposed to it in some way. This causes a powerful change in culture. The actual speed at which new products come out and the approval process have also become faster. In the past, you had to get approval from your supervisor and from various departments including the product team.
Now people run projects without anyone's approval. Since Kickbox came out, you are also rewarded for taking risks. By investing in ideas before knowing what they are, we have actually changed the way people think."
"People at other large companies ask me, 'Is there a way to use Kickbox while minimizing the company's finances or risk?' The answer is, 'No.' Rather, the risk should be emphasized. And everyone should know about it. Actively letting employees know that you are taking risks and betting on great ideas is important."
So far, this bet seems to have a high payoff. Since the innovation program took root in 2015, Adobe recorded a steep annual growth rate of more than 25%, and at the end of last year reached a record-setting quarterly revenue of more than 2 trillion won — the first time ever. Adobe's innovation tool, Kickbox, can be used by anyone. It is fully and freely accessible open source.
As Adobe's PR puts it, "We don't even ask for an email address." Hundreds of companies, government institutions, and nonprofit organizations are reportedly using it.
In 2012, Adobe ran a diagnosis on its performance management and performance review process. The reaction to HR confirmed in an internal survey of about 1,500 people was very surprising. A few important facts were as follows.
Managers spend an average of 17 hours per review, while more than 50% of employees say performance reviews do not affect how they perform their work and are an unnecessary HR requirement.
Six out of ten people are stressed during the performance review process and find it hard to see their rating worsen compared to their colleagues. Millennials in particular have a harder time with traditional performance reviews.
"I want to find another job" (overall 37% : Millennials 47%), "I want to quit" (overall 20% : Millennials 30%). More than two-thirds of Millennials say they would move to a company without such reviews even if there were no change in compensation or job content.
"I want to find another job" (overall 37% : Millennials 47%)
"I want to quit" (overall 20% : Millennials 30%)
More than two-thirds of Millennials say they would move to a company without such reviews even if there were no change in compensation or job content.
More than half of office workers — and an astonishing two-thirds of managers — want the company to eliminate or change the structured performance review process. As for the ideal process, most people want continuous feedback and qualitative feedback.
When Adobe abolished the annual performance evaluation, many people were surprised. Going back six years from now, it could have been considered a risky thing to do. With no validated alternative to replace formal performance reviews, it would have been hard to imagine what kind of result simply abolishing the system would bring.
But Adobe stayed true to its purpose of providing a better experience to employees and improving performance. It skipped heavy and complex processes and focused on having leaders and employees talk more frequently about the most important things — clear expectations, performance feedback, and career growth. And they call this Check-in.
According to Adobe, the Check-in approach has saved more than 100,000 hours of manager time previously spent on the old method, and voluntary attrition has also decreased. The frequency of identifying employees who fall short of expectations and communicating with them has also increased. Even on areas like managing low performers — once thought to be advantages of relative-rating processes like "rank and yank" — Check-in is delivering advantages instead.
In an environment where agility, teamwork, collaboration, and innovation matter, employees have neither the reason nor the bandwidth to compete with each other. It is also hard to accept being compared with colleagues after waiting a year to make one's contributions and behavior known. The Check-in approach — centered on ongoing feedback — gives employees themselves the initiative and control over their growth and self-development, and is a way to activate performance dialogue.
Not only Silicon Valley companies but many global companies put effort into making and maintaining their cultural distinctiveness.
Google, through "Behind the Scenes at Google," provides news and videos about its large projects to change the world. It includes in-depth statistics as well as employment policies, what the workplace looks like, and how it engages with social communities.
Global hotel chain Marriott uses its "Heart of the House" section to deliver news of various employees and detailed descriptions of the social service activities they participate in.
Adobe, more than anything else, has differentiation in showing the everyday life of the company from the perspective of actual employees. It provides a platform where employees and the company can exchange news, and at the same time, the hashtag #AdobeLife connects with various social media so that everyday communication happens actively. People upload fun photos commemorating their 8th anniversary at the company, or post about the value they experienced using their software. During the "Adobe Around the World" campaign, employees in more than 20 countries worldwide photographed their offices and surrounding scenery and posted them to Instagram.
These photos were enough to entice many people looking for a happy workplace. There are also sections for external stakeholders — not just internal employees but also college students preparing for jobs and engineers with interest in and questions about new technology. Adobe Life shows everything you would want to know about the company's culture, and also shows what its products and services are.
Through Adobe Life, employees act as ambassadors for the company brand. The fresh, unique posts from individual employees attract potential customers and potential employees that the company's marketing team would have a hard time reaching. Furthermore, unlike a typical corporate blog, it connects with social media and is communicated in real time, giving the feeling that the culture is alive and moving.
Workplaces filled with countless perks and benefits are already well known. Differentiated office space, expanded vacation, flexible working hours, medical support, education, retirement pensions and stock plans clearly show the company's attention to people. But going one step further, true belonging starts from how employees' experiences and stories are communicated and exchanged with the communities inside and outside the company.