How would you describe the culture of your organization? The company culture will always be informed by your larger company values, mission, and goal, even if individual teams have their own subcultures. But… where do you start?
Changing your company’s culture is never a one-size-fits-all proposition, but you can take action today to improve your organization’s culture, both short-term and long-term. Let’s get started!
Embrace Transparency
Employees aren’t the only ones who benefit from transparency. Transparency in company culture impacts the entire organization and creates highly engaged employees. Trust is truly the foundation of a great organizational culture.
If you want an open and transparent company culture, your first step should be ensuring that your team has the modern communication and collaboration tools to do so.
Outdated communication tools can be a major barrier to transparency, especially if you’re working across different offices and remote employees. It’s imperative that your team has an easy and efficient way to connect with one another and to share crucial information.
Recognize and reward valuable contributions
Employees who don’t feel recognized are twice as likely to quit their job in a year, while the top 20% of companies with a recognition-rich culture have a 31% lower turnover rate. Additionally, employee recognition is a great way for coworkers to grow closer – the next step towards creating an outstanding company culture. Recognizing employees is a great place to start.
Embrace and Inspire Employee Autonomy
Micromanagement at work is something no one likes. It’s ineffective, inefficient, and does little to inspire trust in your company culture. You hired them, so you should trust your employees to manage their responsibilities effectively!
There are a few ways you can inspire employee autonomy, like allowing employees to exercise choice, letting go of the 40-hour work week concept, establishing autonomous work teams, creating decision-making opportunities, and reining in overzealous bosses and coworkers who tend to hover or bully others.
Looking For the Best Retention Strategy for Your Company? VITE is the perfect fit for you!
Communicate Purpose and Passion
When people believe that their work matters, they’re four times more likely to be engaged, are more motivated, learn faster, and are more fulfilled. It’s possible to find purpose in any type of work, but it’s up to a company’s leaders to connect their employees to purpose.
One of the most influential functions of a leader is the ability to infuse purpose into people’s work and enable positive meaning.
Reflect on your own company culture: do you regularly show team members how their work benefits others? Do you often recognize team members for the impact they’ve made on your company’s goals? If not, that’s a good place to start.
Stay True to Your Core Values
Core values are much more than a list of bullet points on a company’s About Us page. Core values are a company’s North Star. They’re informed by an organization’s mission and goals and are the principals at the heart of an organization. As such, they’re not something you pick just because they sound good on your website.
Give culture building the effort it deserves
Few things will have a greater impact on your organization than its culture. Building a company culture takes time and energy. It doesn’t just happen. Your culture should align with your mission and values—and it should resonate with everyone in the organization.
Failing to allocate the necessary time and effort into building a company culture you can be proud of will leave you with a company culture you simply accept, or worse, dislike.
There’s no finish line. A truly amazing organizational culture is a constant work in progress, because as a company evolves, so do its people. Devote time to nurturing your company culture. Exemplify it in every way you can so that your team will be able to recognize and emulate it.