Company Culture

4 Tips for Getting it Right

Assess your current culture

Building a company culture from scratch is easy when you’re just starting out. After all, culture starts with the very person you hire. Their set of beliefs and values will help dictate the kind of culture that will develop. However, if you already have an established organization or company, you’ll need to assess and redefine your company culture if you want to see some improvements.

Here are some simple steps to understand, change, and improve your existing company culture:

  • Evaluate your on-boarding process. If your hiring and training methods are antiquated, consider transitioning into more personalized and participatory processes.
  • Determine whether the leadership is fluid and agile. Change won’t happen if the company leaders are static and resistant to change.
  • Look at the company’s recognition and rewards program. Give employees several options on how they want to be recognized and rewarded.
  • Observe the interactions and dynamics between teams. The goal is to establish strong connections that will pave the way for effective collaboration.

Define your values

Make sure that you know and identify the values that underpin your business operations. Otherwise, it won’t be easy for you to determine what you want your company culture to look like. Some examples of questions that you should ask yourself when defining your company values are the following:

  • Why does your company exist?
  • What does your company stand for?
  • What is your mission or vision?
  • Where do you see yourself and your company a few years down the road?
  • How can the employees demonstrate these company values?
  • Why do the company values matter and how can they contribute to individual and team success?

Institutionalize the culture

After you’ve identified the kind of culture that you want to have in your company, the next step is to create and implement new systems and standard operating procedures. These policies and processes should reinforce the existence of the new culture. Furthermore, they must be scalable and can easily accommodate the growth of your company.

Here are some ways to encourage the permanence of a new company culture:

  • During the hiring process, give multiple employees the chance to assess whether or not a potential hire is a good fit.
  • During performance conversations, make sure that the company values are an important consideration.
  • Have your values placed front and center on the company website to help attract the kind of employees who would be a great fit with your company culture.
  • Consider adding the company values to employee email signatures. This creates a shared language and signals to the rest of the world that the employees embody these values.

Build trust

The foundation of every good company culture is employee trust. It is unfortunate that a lot of larger corporations experience an increasing sense of alienation and distrust between their employees and leaders. Communication issues are often the culprit as managers in these bigger companies don’t get the chance to know all the employees and develop a closer, more personal relationship.

Good communication is always the key for building trust. Improvements on communication lines can be improved by making time for one-on-one meetings, providing employees with autonomy and accountability, and making them feel valued and appreciated.

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