Company culture distinguishes your organization from the rest. It’s also one of the pillars of success. Make it one of your objectives to build company culture to attract the right employees and loyal consumers and allow you to boost your branding.
How can you build company culture? The following are some of the best practices you can implement to achieve this goal.
Establish an Ideal Company Culture
Define your idea of an ideal company culture. This allows your team to come up with a mission and vision statement, policies, and a code of conduct that everyone in your organization can follow. You can produce drafts and include all sorts of ideas which you can revise and refine. This approach allows you to identify which values you want your company to embody. Establishing an ideal also allows your recruitment team to filter applicants. They can refer to your culture objectives whenever they screen applicants. This enables them to identify the ideal applicant which they can move further through the recruitment process.
Compare Current Vs. Ideal Company Culture
Now that you have an ideal company culture in mind, compare it with your present one. This allows you to identify which aspects of the ideal and current culture you want to keep. Some of your practices and policies might’ve worked when you were a company of 100, but it might no longer be effective when you have more than a thousand employees. This comparison provides you with an objective view of how you should move forward to create a workplace that’s inclusive and values driven.
Get Feedback from Employees
Build company culture using feedback from your employees. They have firsthand experience when it comes to company values and the policies you implement. They are likely to express their opinions freely through an anonymous survey. Allow them to discuss the things they like and don’t like about your company’s culture. This allows your management team to identify pain points they can solve and improve the workplace environment. Good things happen when you listen to your employees. They’ll believe their opinion matters and that you’re looking out for their interests.
Reduce Stress with Work-Life Balance
Your employees have a life outside of work. They have events to attend, places they want to visit, family to take care of, and friends they want to hang out with. Encourage them to strike a balance between their work and life. Let them take their vacation days without making them feel guilty they left work behind. Don’t call them during their vacation days or weekends. Don’t send emails or work-related messages after office hours and expect them to reply. Provide mental health support so that your employees have a helpline when they’re dealing with anxiety, fatigue, depression, or others. Let your employees know they can approach their supervisors and management whenever they have suggestions for improvement or want to address a problem within the organization.
Set Expectations
Establish expectations on performance and conduct in the workplace. This allows your employees to adapt to possible changes in workflows, processes, policies, and organizational structure. It also shows them they need to meet your standards when it comes to doing their tasks and their decorum while at work and whenever they represent your company. Underperformance or poor behavior might lead to penalties. Clarify policies regarding culture, office behavior, and performance. Communicate these through various platforms and through the managers of each team.
Make Culture a Priority when Hiring
To build company culture, you need to make it a priority when screening and hiring applicants. During the interview ask questions related to your organization’s culture. Review their employment record to determine if the company’s they worked with before have the same values as yours. Assess an applicant’s track record and performance with their previous employers. If the applicant shares the same values and work ethic, they might be the right fit not just for their technical skills, but also their culture fit. This approach allows you to strengthen your company culture while hiring the best available talent.
Applaud Employee Achievements
One of the factors that can affect employee engagement is recognition. If you fail to recognize their achievements, loyalty, and/or contributions to your company, your organization might see an increase in employee turnover rate. An unappreciated employee will get by doing the minimum and will start quietly quitting. This has a negative effect on team dynamics, motivation, and engagement. Recognize employee achievements during company wide events and within teams. This keeps them motivated to contribute to the company’s success. Incentivize good performance with cash bonuses, schedule flexibility, promotion, travel, and others.
Build Team Relationships
You’ll need to build healthy relationships between employees so they can achieve the objectives you established and possibly surpass them. Teams need to work together through various forms of collaboration. They’ll need to share expertise because one person or one team can’t do everything. Effective partnerships need to have a foundation. Provide your employees opportunities to meet their colleagues in informal settings such as company parties, dinner or lunch out, or through special events sponsored by your organization. These allow your employees to work with others outside their team. They can also engage in friendly conversations and possibly share hobbies.
Meaningful Contributions to the Community
Many employees want to feel their work is meaningful. They look beyond the confines of their office achievements. They want to give back to the community in some way. Show them that your values and mission statement aren’t just words on paper. Show that your company is only sourcing materials from sustainable sources, holds fundraising events for community programs such as book drives, scholarships, or feeding activities to name a few, and other similar activities. Recognize employee contributions whether they participate in the events or provide support behind the scenes.
Build company culture with these best practices. Your organizational culture will be one of the motivating factors of your employees. It also allows you to attract top talent into your ranks. A strong culture also has a positive impact on your brand image. If you’re looking to outsource some of your accounting and bookkeeping tasks, Manila Bookkeepers can be a trusted and reliable partner. We are an accounting company in the Philippines that provides first-rate services to foreign-owned companies looking to do business in the country.
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