What Is Company Culture?
A company's culture is a defining characteristic that sets them apart from others. It encompasses how employees interact within the organization and how the public perceives the company. At its core, company culture is a set of shared values and practices that shape an organization's identity. The more clearly defined a company's culture is, the more likely it is to attract top talent that aligns with its values. By prioritizing culture, companies can create a positive work environment that fosters growth and success.
Why Is Company Culture Important?
· Employee engagement is the extent to which employees feel motivated and passionate about the work they do. A strong company culture encourages employees to feel committed to their work by creating a community of like-minded individuals driven by similar principles. Employees who are more engaged when they come to work are also more likely to relate to one another and solve problems effectively.
· Employees are most productive when they feel like a valued member of their team. A strong culture creates a diverse, inclusive workplace where employees feel their contributions matter. This sense of value can increase productivity, leading to consistent output and better results overall.
· Employees who enjoy their company and its culture are more likely to remain longer term. This can also increase a company's external reputation as it becomes known for being a workplace where employees want to stay and grow.
· Enhanced employee retention means you’re not dealing with the turbulence of too much turnover. And when turnover is low, your recruitment costs stabilize, leaving you with the budget to fund staffing to support growth—rather than high turnover.
· Good corporate culture prioritizes inclusivity, and an inclusive leadership and systems foster innovation. When employees feel supported in speaking up, they can more readily share ideas and adapt to change, because they feel included and valued.
· An engaged employee is a satisfied employee, and job satisfaction has been proven to positively impact customer satisfaction. Happy employees tend to provide better customer service overall.
· If your company can offer prospective employees a positive work environment fueled by a robust company culture, you’re well on your way to winning the battle for high-level talent.
What Makes Up A Good Company Culture?
Each company is unique in its approach to the work and values that bring them together as a team. Good company culture is consistent and authentic to those specific values. There are common attributes that companies tend to consider when defining and strengthening their company's culture:
Performance: This is the quality of work employees produce rather than the hours they put in. Focusing on performance emphasizes celebrating the work employees do and encourages them to recognize each other's achievements.
Autonomy: Autonomy the belief in employee's independence and ability to work on their own. This allows employees to take pride in their work and empowers them to succeed.
Passion: Passion is the intrinsic motivation that employees feel for their work. Employees guided by passion can feel more connected to their purpose at work.
Missions and values: A company's mission and core values are the ideas, beliefs and practices that guide operations. The missions and values of a company unite employees through a shared purpose and provide a sense of community.
Employee/Leadership Relations: Employees look to management to perform their tasks and understand their role in the workplace. Part of a company's culture is properly defining the relationship that exists between leadership/management and its employees to set expectations.
Communication: Planning and defining consistent channels of communication also helps employees understand what their managers expected from them. Whether a company culture prioritizes a transparent, open-door policy or prefers to maintain traditional hierarchies, how they navigate communication with management will help establish the type of company they are.
Acknowledgement of Achievement: A company's culture should define how and to what degree management will acknowledge employee's achievements. Employees that feel appreciated and valued are more likely to continue to produce quality work. Whether it is a quick recognition during a meeting or a quarterly event that rewards milestones, organizations with strong, well-defined cultures typically make sure that employees feel valued and celebrated for their work.
Professional Development: A company's investment in its employees' professional development can promote a culture of success and achievement. If a company puts a strong emphasis on their employees' innovation, for example, it may be valuable to host workshops and promote certification programs that endorse these skills.
Aesthetics and Atmosphere: The look and feel of a company is often the first thing a new hire notices, and that image can help define the rest of an organization's culture.
A company's dress code, office layout, perks program and social calendar are all examples of how aesthetics and atmosphere can influence company culture.
What Company Culture Is Not?
Culture is not the meaningless perks some companies boast about. Perks do matter, but they are just one tiny, sometimes even insignificant, component of culture, especially if they are not even good perks.
A foosball table won't ignite people's passion... purpose and meaning at work will.
"Casual Friday" won't make people more creative... respect, trust and transparency will.
Everybody likes pizza, but it does not replace proper reward and recognition for a job well done.
What Company Culture Should Be?
A culture of respect, belonging, inclusivity, safety, acknowledgement, appreciation, support and care, and accountability... that's great culture and that's how you build a sustainably successful organizations that delivers value for its customers, and for its employees.
What Can You Do To Improve Company Culture?
Building a strong, positive company culture is just the beginning. To reap the benefits of a robust culture, you need to engage in a process of constant cultural refinement and growth.
So, what can you do to enhance an already established culture? Let’s take a look at some strategies you can implement to reinforce your company’s identity and promote greater employee engagement, productivity, and satisfaction.
1. Conduct Regular Employee Surveys
Anonymous surveys give you access to your employees’ candid insights into both the strengths and weaknesses of your culture. By taking the time to regularly tap into your employees’ perspective, you can more easily identify areas for improvement and assess the overall effectiveness of your current culture-building initiatives.
2. Set Up a Culture Committee
Whether it’s organizing social events or implementing initiatives to build your company culture, a culture committee made up of employees from various levels and departments can be a highly effective way to foster continued dialogue and encourage employee engagement throughout your organization.
3. Encourage Innovation and Creativity
If your company values innovation and creativity, you need a culture that gives employees permission to take calculated risks. You can do this by creating an environment that encourages creative problem-solving and welcomes new ideas.
4. Focus on Employee Well-Being
Always be on the lookout for opportunities to advocate for employee well-being. For example, you could provide a snack room filled with healthy snacks, organize yoga classes or meditation sessions, offer discounted gym memberships, or offer access to mental health resources. When you focus on your employees’ well-being, you’re showing them you value their health and happiness.
5. Practice Transparent Decision Making
A transparent decision-making process improves employee trust and creates openness within your organization. Transparent decision-making means involving employees in any decisions that might impact them as well as your business. And clearly communicating why you made certain decisions will help reduce uncertainty and increase loyalty.
6. Create a Positive Physical Work Environment
Your employees’ physical workspace forms a significant part of your company culture: A comfortable, well-designed work environment can boost both morale and productivity. Some examples include open-plan collaborative areas, quiet spaces for focused work and comfortable communal areas for relaxing and socializing.
7. Establish a Mentoring Program
Mentoring programs are a wonderful way to help employees feel both connected and supported in their work. And when you pair less experienced employees with senior team members, you’re facilitating the transfer of knowledge, improving skills, and enhancing career development.
8. Strengthen Internal Communications
Keep your employees both informed and engaged through strong internal communications that reinforce a sense of community. Examples include regular company-wide newsletter updates, ongoing team meetings or an internal communication platform where employees are encouraged to share updates, ask questions, and engage with each other.
9. Celebrate Successes and Milestones
Recognizing individual, team and company achievements and milestones boosts employee morale and fosters a sense of shared accomplishment. Some ways to hold such celebrations include company-wide emails, announcements in team meetings or organizing a company event specifically to celebrate significant milestones.
10. Provide Clear Performance Expectations
By clearly communicating performance expectations, you help employees understand what’s required of them—which lets them focus their efforts more effectively. Be sure to tie these expectations to your company’s missions, vision, and values so you’re reinforcing your desired culture. Hold regular feedback and performance review sessions to support these expectations and enable ongoing adjustment and improvement.
How Do You Measure Company Culture?
Employee Surveys
Quarterly or pulse surveys usually measure a range of engagement drivers. Some of these drivers may be:
· Management
· Workload
· Reward & Recognition
· Freedom of Opinion
· Opportunity for Growth
To the degree these drivers receive high or low scores, they will paint a picture of what the culture is like or perceived as at the organization. You can design employee surveys and conduct analyses in-house or through a third party.
Focus Groups
This may seem ‘old-school,’ but conversations with selected employees can shed light on a company’s culture. Here are some tips on how to conduct an employee focus group.
· Invite a cross-section of employees.
· Organize as many focus groups as necessary but keep them to a manageable size.
· Ask for stories and behaviors, not opinions or rumors.
· Practice active & empathetic listening.
· Let the group know prior that you would be recording the conversation.
· Thank each person after they have shared.
· Analyze the data for trends, patterns, disparities and develop action plans
Exit Surveys
A well-designed exit survey can reveal a lot about your organizational culture. Conduct a thorough analysis of what employees say as they separate from the organization to better understand the culture as they have experienced it.
However, the disadvantage of using an exit survey is that it is reactionary. When employees or new hires separate from the organization, they will not benefit from any action you may take from the information they provide that may have prevented them from leaving.
Why Should You Measure Company Culture?
Data gives insight into what to improve. You’ve often heard ‘what gets measured gets managed.’ It’s true! If you don’t know what your culture is like or what type of culture you desire, then any culture can evolve – positive or negative. But culture is not something you want to leave to chance.
Building a strong organizational culture is crucial for any company's success. Not only does it lead to higher productivity and sales, but it also helps attract and retain top talent.
Investing in employee engagement and retention is just as important. When you know the culture, you are trying to build, you can attract and retain the top talent.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) are also important aspects of building a strong culture. Measuring the progress of DEIB initiatives provides clarity on the company's overall culture and insight into what needs to be improved to foster an inclusive work environment.
Remember, a healthy organizational culture is key to achieving business goals. Companies with engaged workers grew revenue 2.5 times as much as companies with less involved workers over a period of seven years. Plus, 90% of employees within a winning company culture are confident in their company's leadership team.
What Metrics Should You Measure?
It is difficult to determine metrics that would directly help you measure your company culture. However, there are several indirect ways to get a sense of what your culture is like.
The following metrics can give you an indication of the quality of your company culture:
Employee Referrals – This gives an indication to what extent your employees are promoting your organization and referring others to join. Why they are or are not making referrals will provide some insight into the culture of the organization. If you are tracking this formally or informally, it is a good indicator of your corporate culture.
Net Promotor Score - Some organizations track Employee Net Promoter Scores (eNPS). This measures how likely employees are to recommend the organization as a place to work and why.
Productivity – A great company culture should lead to highly productive employees. Productivity metrics measure projected to actually completed ratios for your employees’ goals and organizational objectives.
Turnover – If new hires and high potentials are voluntarily leaving your organization, this may be an indication of toxic culture.
Communication – Email open rates, read receipts, number of intranet page visits, and length of these visits are also good indicators of the health of your organizational culture. If these rates are low, they may indicate staff are not engaged with the organizations as they should be.
I know there's a lot in this, but do not let it stand in your way - the juice is most certainly worth the squeeze!
Mark
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