In the business world, every company — no matter its size — has a culture. That culture is more often than not established by the company’s leadership, and filtered down to the rank-and-file employees. A healthy corporate culture values each employee and puts the goals of the company before individual gains, leading to happier, more productive employees and, more often than not, a successful business. An unhealthy corporate culture is characterized by employees acting upon their own needs rather than what’s best for the company. This type of business more often than not fails.

For Margaret Keane, president and CEO of Synchrony Financial, a retail finance business that specializes in store credit cards, establishing a positive corporate culture is a primary — and ongoing — task. In this interview with Dan Schwabel of Forbes, Keane discusses the roles women occupy at Synchrony Financial, programs that the company has put into place to fill the upcoming leadership gap, why volunteering is central to corporate culture, and much more. Here are some excerpts from that interview:

Keane on women in the workplace: “Synchrony Financial has a diverse client base of major retailers, small to midsized businesses and health care providers who in turn have their own diverse customers. I believe that having employees with diverse backgrounds and experiences helps us better meet the needs of our clients and their customers. They share different perspectives that factor into better solutions for our partners and customers.”
Keane noted that Synchrony Financial has a women’s network that focuses on developing, retaining and supporting women within the company. The firm’s retention rate for women is 95 percent for exempt and 85 percent for nonexempt globally.

Keane on how Synchrony Financial fosters innovation: “At our core, we’re an engagement company. We engage deeply with our partners and provide them with tools such as data analytics, loyalty and marketing expertise to help them engage and build long-term relationships with their customers. The culture we’re developing is reflected in our core values, which are being honest, passionate, driven, caring, bold and responsible. We find if you create the right environment and have the right folks working together from across functions, innovative solutions follow.”
Operating in the ever-evolving worlds of financial services, retail and mobile technology, Synchrony Financial must stay ahead of emerging trends to stay current with its clients and their customers. To aid in that initiative, Synchrony Financial formed an “Innovation Station” more than two years ago to help it transform the way it delivers on innovation and new technology. Cross-function individuals were brought together on one team to focus on emerging technology, ideation and agile development of new products. This team is encouraged to challenge the status quo, explore solutions and think outside the box to continue to design and build new products for Synchrony’s partners and cardholders.

Keane on filling the leadership gap with the impending retirement of baby boomers: “In addition to continually developing internal talent, we launched an exciting new initiative, our Business Leadership Program (BLP). The program was developed by focusing on what’s important to this population, with rotations to grow skills, segments designed to acquire customer-focused experiences, and a special community component that includes a month-long community service project. By providing customer-facing experiences, we’re encouraging a more holistic view of the organization from a very early point in their career.”
In addition, Synchrony Financial offers leadership programs for more tenured employees, providing opportunities for further learning, development and career advancement.

Keane’s philosophy on acquiring talent: “I look at recruiting as a team sport. It’s not just for HR or talent acquisition roles. Everyone on the team, from our executive leaders on down, is focused on attracting and hiring top talent across all demographics and functions. I’ve even interviewed candidates on a weekend when we couldn’t make schedules work any other way. When a business is focused on growth, it’s an imperative to have a strong pipeline.”

Keane on integrating volunteering into Synchrony Financial’s culture: “One of the fastest ways we’ve found for employees to feel connected with the organization and a team is through volunteer opportunities. Employees, especially millennials, want to work on things that matter, so our development programs and onboarding are aimed to get them productive and contributing as soon as possible. This includes making it easy for employees to connect with their co-workers and serve their communities. All employees are granted time off from work for volunteerism, including our nonexempt staff, which is less traditional. If a team wants to help build a park, cook for a soup kitchen, teach financial literacy or something else, it’s a very accepted part of our culture.”
Synchrony Financial employees completed over 17,000 volunteer hours last year.

Full Disclosure: Synchrony Financial was the platinum sponsor at last month’s Women in Retail Leadership Summit.