7 Tips for Creating a Great Corporate Culture
What is Culture?
Culture has existed since the dawn of civilization. It is the foundation of our society.
Culture is defined as a set of values, beliefs, and traditions specific to a group of people.
What is Corporate Culture?
Corporate culture refers to the values, beliefs, and behaviors that define the nature of an organization and governs how it interacts with its members both within and outside.
Corporate culture is engraved in an organization’s goals, structure, approaches, and strategies to the investors, clients, employees, and the greater community.
Why do You Need a Great Corporate Culture?
Corporate culture draws a line between what is acceptable for your organization and what is not. It is the source from which numerous aspects of your organization spring from.
It defines the dress code, turnover rates, problem-solving techniques, hiring and firing decisions, and interactions between employees and clients.
A great corporate culture ensures your organization achieves high levels of client satisfaction.
Satisfied clients are the fuels that fun your business and create a perfect business environment.
Creating an efficient corporate culture will differentiate your business from others. It gives you a competitive advantage.
Let’s delve into these amazing tips on how to create a great corporate culture.
How to Create a Great Corporate Culture
1. Define Your Mission Statement and Core Values
A mission statement is a summary of what your company’s goals and values are. Core values are a collection of ideas and customs that teach you how to manage or carry yourself.
Your mission statement and core values should resonate with your organizations’ goals and visions.
It puts your business in one conspicuous basket. It tells your potential clients what is your business heartbeat.
Values associated with your brand paints a picture of your business culture.
They tell your investors why you started this business and why they should entrust you with their resources. They tell your employees why you hired them.
To create a strong culture, you must clearly define the purpose and core values of your business.
One way to do this is to create an employee handbook. The employee’s handbook will include the business’s mission, target audience, and dress code.
It should also define the roles and responsibilities of every employee.
2. Combine Top-Down and Bottom-Up Management
In the top-down management style, senior leaders of the organization determine the corporation’s projects and goals. One advantage of the top-down style management is that it is the most common and effective tool used to manage businesses.
Employees are probably most familiar with this management style.
However, this may result in disconnects between the employees and the goals you hope to accomplish. Constant disconnects could potentially affect your retention rate.
Bottom-up management happens when goals, projects, and tasks reflect employee feedback. Employees can take part in establishing goals and projects.
One advantage of this style of management is that the employees are assured that their voice counts.
One drawback of the bottom-up model is that employees lack access to top-level information like goals and projects.
If the employees cannot identify the current or future business goals, then they cannot offer feedback.
A combination of top-down and bottom-up management will ensure that you develop a strong workplace environment and allow the employees to feel like their opinion matters.
3. Set Up Your Hiring Process
You need to make sure all your candidates are compatible with your organization. The people you hire will not only affect your business but also reflect its culture.
To optimize your hiring process, you should:
- Make sure your potential employees understand and appreciate your vision. Discuss the employee handbook with them. Make sure that they understand their role in the workplace.
- Utilizing an interview will ensure that you pick the right candidate for the job. Although it can be time-consuming, multiple interviews will help you have long in-depth conversations about the candidate’s skills or experiences and see how they will fit into the culture of your business.
- Choose attitude over experience. A bad attitude can negatively affect your organization, especially if they have the power to persuade others. During the hiring process, you should consider the potential employees’ future in the workplace. Do not hire just for now, hire for the future!
4. Cherish Your Employees
Most employees feel neglected. They are constantly looking for a better job. In such cases, resentment builds in the workplace and destabilizes an effective workflow structure.
Acknowledge all the hard work that goes into running your organization from your employees.
It is easier to assume that you do not need your employees as much as they need you. This is where most organizations lose it.
A team committed to the success of your business beyond their job description will turn around your business and create a tremendous corporate culture.
A reward system motivates your employees to not only do their best but to always have the vision and goal of your organization in mind.
It fosters the kind of teamwork that moves and shakes the competition. The best employee of the month, an employee of the year, or just an appreciation dinner will go a long way in fostering a remarkable work environment.
When your employees feel valued and appreciated, they go out of their way to achieve set targets.
Your corporate culture flourishes in the hands of your employees’ morale and productivity.
5. Recognize Employee Feedback
Whereas most companies have a feedback channel, the transmitting channels do not send the signals to the intended destination.
You need to fill up all the feedback loops. All input and feedback from your employees across the board should reach your desk through the right channels.
Messages moving up the chain need to reach senior management.
If you want to develop a great workplace, you must act on employee feedback. Acting on this feedback will change the culture of your work environment.
It brings a totally different perspective to aspects of your organization that you may otherwise never notice.
6. Create a Language Within Your Work Environment
The language used to frame your company should exude excellence. The used language will determine how you treat your employees, how they treat each other, and how they will treat the customers.
Keep an eye out for the language that is used between employees and customers. Adapt the language to fit the culture of the organization.
Your language tells your story, defines your corporate culture.
7. Outsource Help
It is imperative that you receive help from outsiders like risk management advisors. Risk assessment involves performing an analysis of the workplace environment to identify the hazards and liabilities within your company.
Risk assessment managers can help your business stick to its goals as well as offer new ways that may help to create the climate of your workplace.
They can also develop a control plan or plan of action to reduce the identified risks.
Conclusion
Your Corporate Culture sets the limit of your growth, makes or breaks your business. A perfect work environment steers great work relations that boost your success.
You need to consistently work towards creating and maintaining a great corporate culture. It is a shared way of doing everything within your business with devout passion.
Use these tips to create a business culture that will definitely help your business thrive.
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About the Author
Eugen Spivak is a multi-award-winning author, business strategist, and a business coach. Eugen is the founder of the Canadian Institute of International Business, an organization dedicated to bringing practical and hands-on business education for modern business leaders.
