Company culture is the backbone of an organization. It can be defined as the values, ideals, employee attitudes and business goals that make up the company. To put it simply, the culture defines the company’s identity— and it’s wildly important.
Millennials are the future of the workplace. And like it or not, millennials have high expectations when it comes to company culture. Between flexible work-life balance, hip and inspiring work environments, and competitive benefits, company culture is a big deciding factor in selecting the right company to work for. It’s no wonder corporate America is adopting company culture models from the big household names like Apple, Google and Twitter. You know what we’re talking about: company shuttles with WiFi, flexible work hours, and complimentary office cafeterias to enjoy before happy hour starts at 3pm. These are the organizational cultures that millennials crave and companies nationwide are scrambling to keep up with in order to attract and retain the best talent.
The importance of company culture is constantly evolving and growing. What used to be deemed as unnecessary can now directly impact the success of a business. In fact, Author of Wired Differently, Vern Dosch, said, “I used to believe that culture was ‘soft,’ and had little bearing on our bottom line. What I believe today is that our culture has everything to do with our bottom line, now and into the future.”
In this blog we share why company culture is important and fool-proof ways to make it great.
Why is company culture important?
Recruit top talent
Hubspot’s culture code says it best, “Culture is to recruiting as product is to marketing.” You can have the best recruiters in the game, but if your company culture doesn’t support what they’re offering, you won’t win. Having a strong company culture is one of the top ways to secure top talent. In today’s generation, competitive salary and benefits aren’t enough. Millennials want things like flexibility, work-life balance, bi-weekly happy hours, catered lunches, and generous vacation time. After all, you’re competing with companies like Airbnb and Facebook, so your job listing offer has to provide more than just good pay. Your company’s culture says a lot about you and goes hand-in-hand with the type of employees you’re recruiting.
Decrease turnover
Losing employees is expensive. Not only do you risk hiring a replacement at a higher salary, you also have to spend the time, energy, and money to onboard and train each new hire. Developing the right employee retention strategies can help you avoid turnover and the hassle that comes with it. 65% of employees say that their company’s culture is a key factor when deciding to stay at their job. All that to say, if you want to keep your employees and avoid churn, your company culture is a good starting point.
Motivate your employees
A strong company culture will motivate your employees to do better, and work harder. If they feel valued, and are proud of the company they work for, they’ll be more motivated to contribute to the bottom line. Simon Sinek once said, “Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first.” Start internally, and make sure your employees feel supported and motivated, and that will reflect how your customers feel, too.
Healthy team environments
Of course, you want to foster cross-departmental collaboration. The best way to do so is to create healthy team environments. It’s important to ensure each team feels comfortable enough to go to other departments they may not work with on a daily basis with an ask or favor. Company culture can help facilitate a better relationship among colleagues (peers and executives alike), so that each employee feels comfortable and excited to be part of the team. A healthy team environment, or lack thereof, will directly impact the morale of the office.
Creating a great company culture
Communicate
Communication is key. Whether you’re communicating company values, goals and performance, or strategies, ensuring each team member is in the know and on the same page is a big component of company culture.
Presentations are a great way to communicate with employees for things like onboarding, employee handbooks, all-hands meetings, or compliance training. Beautiful.ai makes it easy to create brilliant presentations, and send it out via a shared link so that each employee can keep it on hand and reference it down the road on their own time.
Listen
Your employees want to be valued, and as a result they need to feel heard. A big part of your organizational culture plan should be to listen to ideas, concerns, and feedback from the team. How are your employees feeling? Are they getting burnt out on their daily grind? How can you help improve their overall experience and productivity? By simply listening, your staff will feel more involved, and more eager to contribute down the line.
Define goals
A good company will define goals, and encourage growth. The opportunity to grow into new roles, and learn more about the industry, is something that a lot of millennials look for when accepting a new position with a new company. As such, a big part of company culture includes looking to the future. Are you supporting your team and setting each new-hire up with the tools for success? Sit down with your team to set goals, but don’t forget to celebrate wins (big or small), too.
Foster social interactions
Your employees are human, and they want to enjoy the people they work with. By fostering social interactions such as company sponsored happy hours, team-bonding events, celebrating company wins, holiday parties, or even simple brainstorming sessions, your employees will connect with their peers on a deeper level. By creating those relationships you’re enabling better communication, collaboration, and comradery among teams. A friendly, social work environment will make employees feel more comfortable and excited about going to work and being in the office.
Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz, said, “In this ever-changing society, the most powerful and enduring brands are built from the heart. They are real and sustainable. Their foundations are stronger because they are built with the strength of the human spirit, not an ad campaign. The companies that are lasting are those that are authentic.”
