We all have to agree to the fact that employees can make or break a company. Hence, it is important to hire passionate and smart working people who can value growth. Knowledgeable and smart people often work with organizations that have a good company culture. If your company lacks in corporate culture then good employees won’t stay with your company for long.
As per the 2018 Global Brand Health Report by Hired, company culture remains one the top 5 factors when evaluating a job. Company culture includes a variety of factors like the company values, working environment, expectations, goals and work ethics.
Let’s understand why having a good company culture is important and how to improve your existing company culture.
Importance of Building a Good Company Culture
Your company culture defines the identity of your company. It works as a force that helps to bind the people in your organization so that everyone works towards achieving a single goal. Here are some of the top reasons why building a good company culture is important to the success of your organization:
● Your company culture is a reflection of your company’s core values. All the different functions that are conducted on behalf of your company like interaction with clients, company advertisements, team meetings, customer service etc all reflect the core values of your company.
● A good company culture trusts employees and values human resource. Your employees should feel a sense of accomplishment while doing their job and above all should be happy. If they don’t, there is a serious problem in your company culture. Most importantly, they must not feel insecure at any point of time.
● A positive work culture is able to attract and retain the right talent which in turns impacts the bottomline of your company.
● The company culture that you provide to your employees can make your advocates or critics. Hence, it not only impacts internally but externally as well.
● Your company culture has a direct impact on the performance of your employees. A healthy work culture presents a balance of company productivity and employee wellbeing.
● A successful organization culture can show people how to behave positively and how to interact politely with the customers. While a negative work culture does just the opposite.
Understand Your Existing Work Culture
I am sure you have a full understanding of your company values but do your employees have the same understanding as you? Or, do your customers have the same understanding as you? In order to find out the answers, do the following:
● Check out your company’s website and read about the mission and values. Do they accurately represent your thoughts?
● Check out the social media posts on your company handle and ask yourself - do they accurately represent your company’s core mission?
● Carry out a survey with your customers and see how satisfied they are with your company’s services or products.
● Carry out a survey with your employees and see how happy they feel with the current working environment.
● Check out the reviews posted about your company on review websites to see what other people feel about your company.
Conducting a background check is essential because it will help you to understand the existing position of your work culture.
How to Create a Healthy and Positive Company Culture
You must take every effort to create a strong organizational culture that fosters a happy relationship between employees and customers. Here are some ways to develop and nurture a positive company culture:
● Encourage your employees and get them excited about the company’s mission and beliefs.
● Make sure to communicate openly and honestly.
● Your customers are the foundation of your business so encourage all your employees to focus on the customer first.
● All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, hence, cultivate an environment of enjoyment.
● Create a workplace where everyone respects the opinion of others. Employees should not make fun of others especially the new joinees. Respect should be given to one and all.
● Create a culture where everyone lends a helping hand to others. Team work should be the main priority.
● Cultivate a culture of innovation. If everyone is doing the same set of repeated tasks using the same methods then your company will stop growing. Allow people to share ideas and regularly test new methods of doing things.
● Your employees should live the company culture and not only believe in it.
● Everyone should be able to voice their opinion irrespective of their caste, gender, designation, race etc.
● If you want others to work smart and improve productivity then be the example than others will want to follow.
● Establish an environment of trust and humanity and never forget your mission’s core values.
● Develop an attitude of “nothing is impossible” among your employees.
● Upgrade your entire hiring process around your core values so that you hire the right people in your team.
● Reward employees who are able to reinforce the company’s mission and values.
Factors That Creates A Work Culture
The below figure accurately depicts the formation of a company culture that starts with the behavior of leaders.
It is true that culture is created with the help of leaders. The following factors leads to the creation of work culture:
● The actions and behaviors of leaders.
● The things that leaders pay attention to.
● The actions of C-suite executives like what they reward and punish.
● The time and money spent on the kind of resources.
The actions of the leaders slowly and gradually creates a work culture that are followed by others.
Final Thoughts
Company culture is the thing that should not be forced upon somebody. People should be able to own it and embrace it. It should give them a feeling of pride and not insecurity. It is true that the company culture revolves around the leader so they need to be strong enough to consistently communicate the company’s mission and vision with others. Culture is unique to every organization so build a culture that is able to retain and nurture the right talent in order to increase productivity and improve brand trust.