We’ve all heard that it’s important to implement and live your company culture. Not only your employees, but your entire company will benefit from it.
But what makes a company culture so important?
And how can you create a healthy company culture within your organization?
Cowen Partner’s top executive recruiters answer those questions here, sharing key insights about modern company culture.
Before we dive deeper into the subject, we need to understand what the term company culture means.
Even if there’s no universal definition of company culture, most professionals agree that company culture comprises a shared set of goals, values, and attitudes which define the organization. Given this, the company culture defines how your employees feel about their work. Furthermore, it influences their values in which they believe and how they support the company’s future.
A company’s culture can have a great impact on the whole organization and its results. Therefore, it’s important to implement a healthy and successful culture within your organization.
Before we can discuss how you can implement a healthy company culture within your organization, we need to understand what a successful company culture looks like.
Big companies such as Google or Facebook are pioneers when it comes to company culture. But what do these companies do, right?
Curiosity, teamwork, respect, and the health of their employees are the pillars of their culture. At those companies, you can find groups of individuals with diverse backgrounds. By making everyone feel safe, appreciated, and valued, Google and Co. give their employees the opportunity to express themselves.
A company’s culture does not only influence how your employees feel about your organization but also your company’s overall results.
Employees who can identify with the company’s culture are more motivated and productive. They strive to support the organization and are more likely to stay with it. When it comes to hiring new team members, candidates, usually, pay great attention to an organization’s culture since it affects an employee’s overall happiness with the job. And who doesn’t want a job they like?
Therefore, candidates consider the company culture before applying for a job. Organizations with a healthy culture are, of course, more likely to get lots of applications from qualified candidates.
Unfortunately, the minority of employees say that they can identify with their company’s culture. You, however, don’t want to have a company where your employees don’t engage with their work. So let’s discuss how to build a healthy culture!
Whether you want it or not, having a company culture is a naturally occurring phenomenon in every organization. Given that, you should aim to implement a favorable company culture!
When it comes to implementing your company’s core values, you first need to define them. However, writing them down on paper is only the one step. You also need to embody them!
A good example is Facebook. The tech giant, often, faces big projects and pushes the limits. Of course, this strategy backfires in some cases. However, it helps the company to attract like-minded employees.
Uber as well lives a healthy and successful company culture. Recently, the organization parted with its CEO and some other important executives. By doing so, Uber showed its employees that it sticks to its values.
You see, in order to successfully build a company culture, you need to live up to your core values. How to achieve this will be discussed in the following.
Before implementing your company culture, you need to set your organization’s goals. Why was your company founded? What do you want to achieve?
Just have a look at Google. The company promotes its slogan “Build for everyone”. This goal doesn’t only sound really ambitious, it also inspires people on a deeper level. It defines Google’s goals and what the company wants to achieve.
When defining your goals, you should always keep in mind that they should align with your employees’ goals. If this is the case, your entire organization will profit!
Of course, you want your employees to be motivated and productive. But how can you achieve that?
It’s really simple! Appreciate the team’s effort. Offer your employees the opportunities they are looking for. Try to keep them engaged and your organization will benefit from their healthy attitudes.
And last but not least, support your employees. Everybody, even the best workers, need help sometimes. This help can be of professional nature, in other cases someone may need personal support. Supporting your employees is one of the most important things a leader can do!
When it comes to implementing your company’s culture, it’s important that you set a good example by living up to the set values every day.
If you let employees get away with behavior that is inconsistent with your company culture, it can have serious negative effects in the long run. The performance of your weaker employees is likely to decrease. At the same time, stronger employees may feel discontent.
Therefore, it’s important to avoid toxic behavior that is not in alignment with your company culture. To do so, set a good example and live your company culture every single day. Recognize employees who do the same. This will set an even better example.
And always remember, some employees may not even be aware of their behavior. In this case, give them feedback so that they can modify their behavior. Confronting somebody with their flaws may not be easy, but it’s very important if you want to implement a healthy company culture.
Now you know how important it is to implement a healthy culture within your organization and how you can achieve it! Most importantly, you should always live up to your core values. Only by doing so, you can set a good example and motivate your employees to do the same.
Our hands-on executive recruiters have experience working with private, public, pre-IPO, and non-profit organizations. Clients are typically $50 million in revenue to Fortune 1000’s or have assets between $500 million to $15 billion. Successful placements span the entire C-Suite – CEO, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer, and include vice president, general counsel, and other director-level leadership roles.
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