Is your corporate culture vague, undefined or more negative than you would like? Developing a strong organizational culture is a challenging and never-ending process, but it’s worth the effort.
Why Is Company Culture Important?
Attract the Right Employees
Whether you realize it or not, your organization has a personality. Think of the basic characteristics of your top employees. Are they fun-loving or serious? Competitive or cooperative? Innovative or structured? When you clarify your culture, the candidates who best meet your profile will be more likely to flock to your door.
Keep Your Team Engaged
When you start with a larger pool of the right candidates, hiring becomes easier. As a result, you can choose only the best fits. New employees are happier, more productive and less likely to leave. This, in turn, improves your reputation and circles back to an enthusiastic pipeline of top-qualified applicants.
Build Your Brand
Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh claims, “The brand is simply a lagging indicator of the culture.” In other words, great cultures create great brands. And when organizations have a strong brand, they also have better market recognition and a more loyal customer base.
What Steps Can You Take to Improve Your Company Culture?
Define
The first step is to decide what is most important to your organization. For example, three vital elements of Southwest Airline’s culture include appreciation, recognition, and celebration. Online eyeglasses retailer Warby Parker’s ground rules include “Treat customers the way we would like to be treated,” “Get out there,” and “Green is good.”
Broadcast
Many companies assume simply defining culture is enough. However, just because the CEO understands the culture doesn’t mean the employees do. In his book, The Culture Code, Daniel Coyle encourages organizations to drastically overcommunicate priorities. He discovered in strong corporate cultures, “Statements of priorities were painted on walls, stamped on emails, incanted in speeches, dropped into conversation, and repeated over and over until they became part of the oxygen.”
Live
Knowing and even understanding your culture isn’t enough. Leaders must embrace, model and nurture desired behaviors. As Netflix’s former Chief Talent Officer, Patty McCord writes in her book Powerful, “It’s a matter of identifying the behaviors that you would like to see become consistent practices and then instilling the discipline of actually doing them.”
Repeat
The idea of designing the perfect corporate culture and then crossing the finish line is very appealing. Unfortunately, real life doesn’t work that way. Industries, companies, employees and trends are forever in flux. The process is ongoing. CEO Satya Nadella explains Microsoft’s culture as follows, “We’re making great progress, but we should never be done. It’s not a program with a start and end date. It’s a way of being.”
Are You Looking to Hire Great Culture Fits for Your Company?
At BOS Staffing, we value our relationships with our clients. We’ll get to know your organization first, so we can deliver talented employees who fit seamlessly into your team. Learn more about the staffing solutions we offer in Gainesville, GA and the surrounding regions.
