Values in Action at RapidSOS

At RapidSOS, we connect the world to public safety by acting with URGENCY, operating with TRUST & SAFETY, PIONEERING to drive change, and putting our PURPOSE OVER our PRIDE. These four core values are essential to who we are. 

We developed these values as a team to  build alignment, develop relationships, and define “Who is RapidSOS.” To land on these four values, RapidSOS team members split into groups and brainstormed what it means to work at RapidSOS. Each group presented their perspective on sticky boards and the whole company was able to put sticky notes with thoughts on what resonated most to them. From there we were able to narrow down our values into 4 core themes.

Here’s where we landed.

URGENCY

• 165M 9-1-1 calls every year depend on us – every moment we delay impacts lives
• We need to move fast while maintaining quality control and staying as lean and efficient as possible

TRUST & SAFETY

• We are authentic and compassionate, and we always do the right thing – even when no one is looking
• We trust each other to perform at a high level and operate in the common ground
• We are 100% committed to improving public safety and saving lives around the world

PIONEERING

• We are creating transformative, impactful, technology that will revolutionize public safety
• We encourage questioning the status quo and presenting ideas from across the organization
• We believe in being technology first-movers – driving innovation to solve this major global challenge

PURPOSE OVER PRIDE

• We are doers – no task is beneath us (we will roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty)
• We believe in continuous learning; we listen to the needs of our public safety partners, our customers, and our co-workers
• Our work is life-and-death – we do not let pride ever color our focus on quality & performance

At RapidSOS, our values are not just taglines – they are embedded into everything we do. 

1. We introduce our values to new team members right away. Even before a new team member embarks on their RapidSOS journey, our values have played a role in their interview process and in our hiring decision. On Day 1, new hires are introduced to our values during RapidOnboard, our new hire onboarding program. 
2. We look to our values to guide resource and strategy execution. During all-hands round robins, teams often share their updates with the context of how their work embodies each of our values. Additionally, our values informed our focus on Learning & Development in the latter half of 2021. 
3. We hold ourselves accountable to our values as we grow. To ensure our values reinforce our culture over time, we take time to observe and recognize how we are embodying them. This is why values play a large role in our performance and growth conversations, and why you’ll often see teams sending kudos in our #kudos Slack channel based on our values.

This year we hosted our first annual Values in Action Awards. The awards were an opportunity to recognize colleagues who have exhibited our RapidSOS values in a meaningful way across the last year. Whether it was through a big “win” or simply in how they carry themselves each day, team members were encouraged to take a moment to nominate individuals on the team who act with URGENCY, TRUST & SAFETY, PIONEERING, and PURPOSE OVER our PRIDE. Nominations represented every team and function, demonstrating just how much our values inform what we do and how we work together. 

Interested in joining a company that values URGENCY, TRUST & SAFETY, PIONEERING, and PURPOSE OVER our PRIDE? Check out our open roles today.