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“Business Casual.” What comes to mind when you think of that phrase? Your first thought was probably in regards to dress. Casual Fridays at work where you get to remove your jacket and tie for a day. While that is certainly part of business casual, the focus of this article is on business casual as a work environment and company culture. In other words, I want to talk about the atmosphere created when the jackets and ties come off.

What makes a company culture business casual?

It comes down to three factors: autonomy, management-employee relations, and organization of the workspace. The following paragraphs will explain these three factors in detail, with an example of the business-casual culture in action from this extensive list of the 100 best companies to work for.

Autonomy

I think the best place to start when it comes to defining the elements of a business-casual work environment is autonomy. Old-school management theory revolves around the idea that work is inherently distasteful, therefore we must be constantly managed through a reward-and-punishment system to complete our work. This attitude is why so many people hate their jobs- particularly millennials. This type of company culture goes against the molecular grain of a millennial’s DNA.

I’m currently in the middle of reading a book by Daniel Pink on motivation called “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us,” and one of the key points he makes is how the reward-and-punishment style of management, which he calls the “carrots-and-sticks” system, is hopelessly ineffective in today’s ever-evolving society.

He points out how autonomy is one of of the hidden factors of motivation. He states that people will do work without the carrot-and-stick system if you just give them autonomy in how, when, and where they complete their work.

The example he uses is Google and their famous 20% time. Let me ask you a question: what do Google News, Gmail, and Google Adsense have in common?

Answer: They were all created during Google’s 20% time.

The 20% time philosophy lets Google employees spend up to 20% of their time working on any idea they have, provided they get all of their standard work completed. This philosophy is business-casual in the sense that it fosters collaboration without boundaries, rather than departmentalization of work with rigid definitions of who works on what. It is no surprise that Google is the #1 company to work for according to the aforementioned list.

The management-employee relationship

The second key aspect of a business casual-company culture is the relationship between management and the employee. This is not necessarily limited to having a “cool” boss who makes it a point to actually acknowledge and appreciate your existence. This also comes in the form of unique perks which keep employee morale through the roof- mainly because the perks are made to make workers feel like partners in the company, and not just employees.

The Boston Consulting Group, number 2 on our list, is one of the best when it comes to these types of perks.

What I personally found intriguing from my research is Boston Consulting Group says up front that their employees put in a ton of hours. To a millennial, this might throw up a work-life balance red flag, yet this company was named one of the best places for millennials to work in 2014: How?

The answer lies in the perks. Boston Consulting Group has regular company retreats, unpaid sabbaticals for those who need to decompress, paid time off for adoptive parents, and flexible scheduling. Not to mention their 100% insurance coverage for both the employees and their dependents. The list goes on, but the point is that these corporate perks are what makes the business-casual culture so successful.

Organization of Work Space

I wanted to use another company for an example of this third aspect of business-casual corporate culture, but Google is just too cool. I could go into detail regarding the endless wonder of a Google office forever, but this five-minute video tour of Google’s NYC office sums it up perfectly.

Do you work for a company who embraces the business-casual culture? Reach out to me at @Bpucino on Twitter- I’d love to spotlight them in a follow-up article for our readers!