The importance of company culture is growing in the modern workforce. 66% of job seekers find a company’s values and culture to be the most critical factor when considering career opportunities.
If you want to create and grow a business that thrives, good company culture must be a priority. Here’s everything you need to know about workplace culture and how to implement it effectively.
What Is Company Culture?
Simply put, company culture is defined as the “shared values, attributes, and characteristics of a business.”
Essentially, you can think of company culture as the shared values that unite a business. These represent the heart, or culture, of the company. This culture paves the way for the decisions employees make, their work, their belief in the business’ purpose, and how they’ll help get the company where it needs to go.
It’s important to note that good company culture is not stating core values and doing nothing else. Authentic workplace culture comes from the implementation of values that help create a proper work environment. Core values can actually harm company culture if not abided by.
Benefits of Excellent Workplace Culture
Remember this statistic? 66% of job seekers find a company’s values and culture to be the most critical factor when considering career opportunities. Good company culture isn’t something to ignore.
There are many benefits of strong organizational culture, but here are the highlights.
Lower Turnover
In the United States, the average employee turnover rate is 20%, with the majority, 45%, of workers quitting after less than one year at the company. Strong company culture means a work environment that supports its employees; these are the people who are more likely to stay at your business.
Involvement at Work
Shockingly, a Gallup poll found that 70% of the American workforce is disengaged. Unfortunately, with only 25% of employers having an engagement strategy, this feeds the problem.
Since companies with better engagement levels generate 21% more profits, promoting good company culture, which then boosts employee involvement, impacts your bottom line.
Increased Diversity
The importance of a diverse workplace can’t be understated. 43% of businesses with diverse management generated higher profits. Additionally, diverse teams are 87% better decision-makers than any one person alone. These are two of many statistics which highlight the benefits of a diverse workplace.
Promoting good company culture that values diversity positively impacts your company.
Professional Development Opportunities
Over 70% of high-retention-risk employees are considering quitting because they feel stuck at their current company.
Encouraging excellent workplace culture means fostering professional development. This helps you retain your best talent while allowing them to flourish into more prominent roles within the organization.
Lack of Office Politics
Office politics aren’t fun for anyone, and there’s evidence to back this up. Impacts of office politics include:
- Lack of concentration
- Decrease in productivity
- Increased stress
- Lack of motivation
- Decreased interest in work
- Misinformation spreading
Somewhat unsurprisingly, 70% of respondents in one survey indicated that they’d left a job due to corporate politics. Not only do office politics significantly impact employee productivity and motivation, but they also cause them to leave.
A thriving workplace culture means there’s no room for systemic office gossip, creating a more productive environment.
How To Create Good Company Culture
Here are the top ways you can begin establishing positive company culture today.
Determine Your Company’s Core Values
While core values alone do not constitute good company culture, these represent the Northstar of the organization. If you use these core values to guide decisions at work, you’ve created company culture.
Since most, if not all, top job seekers will research your company culture before applying, you’ll want to make this clear. Here’s how you can do that:
Hold everyone accountable, including leadership. Doing the right thing can be tricky when your executives are under fire. However, good company culture means holding everyone accountable to core values. The right leader for your company will hold his or herself responsible, too.
Talk about your values. A lot. Make obvious your business’s core values on the website, in conversations, and at any other touchpoints. If people have to guess what your core values are, they aren’t “core” enough.
Do you believe in yourself? Are your core values strong enough that you’d hire your own company to perform work? If not, these values need to be reworked, better implemented, or both.
Abide By Company Culture Best Practices
Now that your core values are established, you can extrapolate what good company culture means for your organization. That’s the easiest part! What comes next is more complicated.
Fostering a workplace environment that holds true to your company culture means reinforcing it at every level. Leaders must adopt company culture immediately and begin practicing it at all times.
Further, you’ll want to recognize employees who embody company culture. This doesn’t need to be anything huge; in fact, you can simply call out and praise this behavior, as that alone can have a large impact.
Provide Feedback
Even if your leaders are adhering to good company culture and reinforcing this type of workplace behavior at all levels, there will be times when organizational culture is violated. Addressing this is as important, if not more important, than recognizing adherence to culture.
Provide employees with a surplus of feedback whenever culture is violated. Sometimes, a lack of adherence may be an honest mistake, and feedback gives everyone a chance to correct their wrongdoings. Although this can be uncomfortable, it’s critical if you want to maintain good company culture.
To Build Good Company Culture, You Need The Right Leadership
Workplace culture begins at the top, so to effectively create a good company culture, you need to hire exemplary executive leadership. With over two decades of experience, Jennings Executive specializes in executive recruitment for a select few fields. Learn more about us today!
We hope these tips help you on your journey towards building strong organizational culture.
