Building incredible culture for a leader in operations software
Dude Solutions and New Kind tell the story of the people, purpose, and possibility behind operations’ unsung heroes
Background
Do you know the maintenance or operations professionals in your building? Chances are the people at Dude Solutions do. Dude Solutions recognizes and empowers them with the software they need to keep your building clean and safe.
With a mission to empower maintenance and operations professionals—the unsung heroes who care for the most important places in our lives—Dude Solutions is a deeply purpose-driven organization, dedicated to their clients’ success.
With an ambitious growth and hiring plan—and following the roll-out of the new Dude Solutions story and identity—the team saw an opportunity to extend this inspiring narrative to their employer brand.
The Human Resources leaders and executives at Dude Solutions approached New Kind with this challenge: to help them take an in-depth look at their company culture to uncover what was working well and what could be improved. From this place of shared understanding, we would then update their company mission, vision, and values and tell their story in the form of an Employer Value Proposition, or EVP. Finally, they asked us to help them with several rollout projects to support their hiring and retention efforts.
Industries: Technology
Services: Employer Value Proposition, Research, Rollout Strategy, Storytelling
Research
Discovering the Dude’s ‘Why’
We began our deep dive into life at the Dude with a culture brand audit. Our research looked at what stood out to both current employees (retention) and future employees (attraction). We reviewed the company’s presence on hiring sites like Glassdoor and LinkedIn, as well as their careers-focused messaging on their website and across their social media platforms. Messages being used on these channels would help us identify key themes and touch points in the employee / applicant journey that could be improved.
We also fielded and analyzed an internal employee survey. This extensive survey included questions about word and phrase associations; mission, vision, and values alignment; net promoter score (NPS); as well as qualitative questions about why employees joined the Dude and what they love most about working there.
The research phase helped uncover what makes Dude Solutions special. We read hundreds of incredible employee stories and comments. We had honest discussions about the current and future state of their employer brand. And we started to see clear alignment between the broader Dude Solutions brand story and the employer story it needed to tell.
Mission + Vision + Values
Inspiring the employees who empower the unsung heroes
The insights we gathered during our research sprint gave us clues for how we could revise the company’s existing values. To guide and support Dude Solutions’ big goals, we knew they needed to be more meaningful and memorable for employees and clients alike.
We realized that for these new values to have sticking power, they needed to feel like facets of the brand that have always been true. A commitment to service and improving the lives of others. Always innovating and seeking a better way. Operating with transparency and accountability. Working collaboratively to do something incredible.
We chose words that felt authentic to the “Dude Solutions way”—framing each new value in the context of how Dude Solutions employees demonstrate or aspire to them every day.
In this way, these new values—service, ingenuity, integrity, and together—would become more than just words on a wall. They would become vital traits that define what it means to be a Dude.
We also helped the Dude Solutions team revise their mission and vision statements. Creating simple declarations that could serve as beacons to guide the organization for the next 5, 10, 25 years.
EVP Story
Capturing a story of people, purpose, and possibility
We knew from creating the company’s story and visual identity that Dude Solutions is about much more than software. It’s about empowering people to do the best work of their lives through solutions and support that change the way they work.
It’s a story we heard over and over again through our research—in conversations with Dude Solutions employees and executives, online reviews, client feedback, and our internal survey data. This commitment to doing incredible work alongside incredible people is the glue that holds Dude Solutions together. And it was from these stories that we found the heart of the Dude employer brand.
We took everything we heard and created key themes that would form the backbone of the Dude Solutions EVP (and which happen to fit in a simple and memorable structure).
A career at Dude Solutions, we realized, is all about people, purpose, and possibility. These themes—framed as the Dude Solutions “pledge”—are succinct enough to use in recruiting situations, campaign materials, and everyday social interactions. And because a deep care for clients is so important to Dude Solutions and its employees, we built language around each theme to further articulate what it means to both employees and clients.
In many ways, the Dude Solutions EVP story is one that the team already knew—but hadn’t yet articulated or shared broadly with the world. Teams of talented and driven individuals, a mission to make a meaningful and measurable impact in the world, and a vision to create a future of better work are at the heart of what makes Dude Solutions, Dude Solutions.
Outcomes
Inspiring the future of a high-growth organization
To bring the inspiring new story to life, we helped the Dude Solutions team create a series of content and design updates for Dude Solutions’ LinkedIn, Glassdoor, and Careers and Mission web pages. We advised the Marketing and HR teams on social media best practices to optimize the organization’s cultural and hiring initiatives. And we helped the executive team develop a strategy for sharing the new EVP with the full organization—including a deck for the company’s quarterly town hall gathering, recommendations for employee recognition programs, and possible social media engagement campaigns.
Finally, we designed branded signage for the newly renovated Dude Solutions headquarters in Cary, NC—from wall wraps to posters to office-wide rolling digital slide shows—all drawing inspiration and messaging from the new EVP story.
