Company culture is a key factor in determining how employees feel about their job, boss, and work environment. A healthy culture helps make your business more profitable.
What does company culture entail? In simple terms, this refers to a set of shared goals, values, practices, and attitudes a business cultivates. Most of the time, company culture is set by leaders and organizational founders. They’re the ones who help people realize why their work is important and how they can help the company.
How do you build an organizational culture that will help you achieve your business goals? Start by following these five simple steps.
- Assess Your Current Culture
If you’re looking to define a new company culture for an existing business, your first move should be to take stock of your current culture. You have several options here, such as using exit interviews, conducting employee surveys, and talking with engaged employees.
This will give you a sense of what’s working in the company, but it may also uncover some toxic practices that you’ve cultivated unconsciously. This is perfectly normal: building a business isn’t easy, and you’re bound to make mistakes along the way. If your culture isn’t where you want it to be, the only thing that matters is being willing to improve it.
- Involve Employees in the Hiring Process
When you’re hiring new employees, let the current employees voice their opinion. The person you hire will become a part of your work family, so they need to be a good fit. Look for prospects with a bit of experience and values that are in line with your company.
During the hiring process, allow your current employees to read the prospect’s CV. Have them share their opinion of a candidate or ask questions that they think may be important. Taking this kind of collaborative, multi-pronged approach to hiring can do wonders for building a positive workplace culture.
- Have a Specific Vision
Being specific about your company culture will make it much easier to execute. Start by narrowing down the single, overarching goal that’s most important to your business. Then, figure out how your company values can support it. What do you imagine your cultural fit to look like? What should drive employee motivation? What role will diversity play in your culture?
If some of these questions seem tough to answer, look to your heroes for inspiration. Write down a list of companies you’d like to emulate, head to their websites, and start checking out their “About Us” or “Careers” pages to learn more about their company values.
- Take Advantage of Technology
In this digital era, technology can be one of our biggest allies. How much technology you can add to your business will vary based on the industry, but every industry can make use of technology. Modern business tools strike the right balance of being affordable and available, and many of them can make life much easier for your employees.
For example, you can use social media for marketing, Google Docs for sharing data, or LinkedIn for networking. You can also rely on online courses that help workers learn key business skills. All of these tools make your employees feel valued, maintaining a happy business culture.
- Keep Building Trust
Finally, you should do whatever you can to win your employees’ trust. This includes being reliable, transparent, and following through on your promises. Many employees need to know that their employer trusts them to do their best work.
For the above methods to work, it’s crucial that you get to know your employees. By learning what motivates them, you’ll be able to put them in positions to grow and succeed. By recognizing what they’re good at, you can encourage them to expand their skill set. Doing these things makes employees more comfortable, further contributing to a culture of trust.