Onfido’s take on culture

At Onfido, we take pride in our company culture — it’s at the heart of everything we do. Our culture is the fuel behind positive attitudes, lively energy, and a thriving environment. Without it, Onfido would not be where it is today.  

We’ve worked hard to strengthen our community and grow our team over the past couple of years. In 2021, we expanded our workforce by 50% from the previous year, hitting 600 employees globally. Here is a closer look at where we stand today and how we plan to further our culture even more. 

The core values that unify us 

At Onfido, we don’t just talk about our core values — we live them. They shape our vision, culture, and identity.

Most companies describe their corporate values using words. However, Onfido isn’t like most companies. We characterize our five core values using animals and their behaviours to guide our own actions:

• Take Pride - Lion
• Find a Better Way - Finch
• Learn Things, Share Them - Chimp
• Create Customer Buzz - Bee
• Succeed Together - Penguin

Let’s take one of my favourites, for example — the penguin. Penguins represent our mission to “succeed together.” Huddling close together for support, penguins work as a team to protect their family and achieve a common goal. Well, in a way, we strive to do the same. At Onfido, we draw ideas and experience from across the company to make impactful decisions and support each other. We encourage social interactions through close-knit crews that have a wide scope and variance. This tight network creates a welcoming experience and a generous knowledge-sharing environment. 

Not only do we foster an accepting community, but we aim to make culture our North Star for our behaviours and interactions. It’s how we maintain a harmonized identity across all our offices, locations, and remote workers. With our core values that act as the backbone of our company, we stay unified despite the physical distance between us. We remain grounded in our teams and mission no matter where we work.  

How we wrap our arms around culture 

Onfido embraces culture with open arms. We have a dedicated team and a variety of resources that create an inclusive environment for our Onfidoers. 

Let’s first dive into our culture week. Each quarter we have a dedicated culture week that focuses on supporting a world-class workplace while having fun with our teams. During this time, we arrange wellbeing activities, create action plans based on our survey results, host team spotlights, highlight our achievements, and most importantly come together as a team. It’s an amazing opportunity for Onfidoers to learn and celebrate culture. 

Every Friday, we have a company-wide meeting that we call “OnFriday'' where we celebrate each other’s successes and deliver key messages. We get to hear from different areas of the company such as our growth, operations, and product teams. It’s a designated time to bring our global community together, allowing us to unleash energy towards a shared purpose and foster a supportive environment. 

To help cultivate a sense of belonging at Onfido, we also have four culture surveys throughout the year where our employees can give feedback on how we can enhance our community. Based on the findings, the executive team then makes commitments on what changes will be implemented. For example, our survey results have led to new Slack channels where we can share our wins as a company, as well as new company-wide hero metrics. Likewise, we share a wide variety of cultural resources and strategic projects that keep cultural needs at the heart of what we do.   

Emerging trends for culture 

It’s no secret that society is constantly evolving — with its transformation comes new issues that our community may need extra support on or innovative trends we should take advantage of. We embrace change and are always looking for a way to improve our culture. 

A hot topic since March of 2020 has been the Covid 19 pandemic. During this period, we wanted to guide teams and make sure our employees were equipped with everything they needed. Our teams receive extensive training in video conferencing and how to prevent technical glitches. We upped the ante around our all-hands Q&A and town hall company meetings to make sure that, as well as 1-2-1s, we could come together virtually in regular company-wide catch-ups. To deepen professional relationships and build cognitive flexibility, we incorporated psychometrics into leadership programs to better enable our leaders to be open and curious in times of uncertainty. 

Now, in a post-pandemic world, we’ve adapted to have a hybrid work culture experience that mirrors the in-office experience. We host online team meetings, lunch chats, and company-wide contests in addition to company all-hands events. We also provide mental health resources and embrace open conversations about any struggles we face to reduce stigma. When it comes to Onfido culture, we ensure that our people’s well-being remains front and centre. 

To bring teams together, we sponsor a variety of interactive social events ranging from online activities such as games, deskside yoga, and cooking classes to in-person activities and meet-ups. We value team bonding and engagement, and we plan to host more social outings in the future.   

To further foster an inclusive and engaged workplace, we have recently launched Fido Resource Groups (FRG). FRGs are employee-led sponsored groups that allow employees to feel a sense of belonging on a more personal level. Some types of FRGs we currently have are mental health, women, neurodiversity, and parents — and our list keeps growing. We encourage employees to create more of these resource groups in order to foster a diverse, inclusive, and engaged workplace. 

The road ahead

We have worked hard to promote a company where we can embrace our uniqueness and rise together. We are so proud of what we have accomplished, and the road ahead of us promises even more developments to our culture. Stay tuned to hear updates of how we’re making Onfido an even more amazing place to work.