7 Ways to Improve Company Culture

What is Company Culture?

Company culture pertains to what the company as a whole is. It defines the company’s work environment; it involves a wide variety of elements, such as the employees shared beliefs, values, goals, and even expectations, it involves every element there is about the company.

Today, when you talk about good company culture, the gigantic company Google always comes into mind. According to its website, Google’s culture is flexible (employees are encouraged to work when they like and how they like), fun (offices have nap pods, video games, and ping pong) and founded on trust.

Building a sense of community is one of the first steps to creating a more positive company culture.

Ross Brooks - Peakon.com

Why Company Culture is Important?

In recent years, company culture has been considered an important factor for employees. Employees with a good working environment tend to enjoy what they do.

Company culture has been a magnet for more brilliant and talented employees who would love a more relaxing work atmosphere, people who you surely need for your company, it attracts them and makes them stay.

In exchange, those brilliant employees tend to perform much better because of the atmosphere and freedom provided with good company culture. And because your employees tend to stay longer, it results in a lower turnover rate, which then leads to better co-worker relationships.

Good company culture also adds to your brand’s name and identity. How you treat your employees would reflect how they perform or interact with work or in some instances, even with customers.

All in all, a good company culture boosts effectiveness and efficiency for everyone.

7 Ways to Improve Company Culture

• Be Transparent

Transparency builds trust and makes employees feel that they're working for a company with higher ethical standards when added to the corporate culture, employees will be more engaged and committed to the vision of the company.

Being transparent means that a company is open and honest about its plans and operations, and its employees are also open and honest with one another and with customers.

Organisations that establish transparency in its company culture improve the team's productivity, employee retention, and customer satisfaction

• Establish Clear Company Values and Goals

Having clear company values helps you ensure that all your employees are working towards the same goals. Your core values support the company's vision and shape its culture. That's why every single business decision should be aligned with these values.

The company values reflect what you and your employees stand for, they give them a sense of responsibility.

Indeed, every decision your employees make should be aligned with the company values you've communicated with them.

• Offer Flexibility

Flexibility helps employees maintain a work/life balance and can help employers improve the productivity and efficiency of their business.

Recent experiments on this show that flexible hours actually help boost their creativity and productivity because they have more time on their hands to do other necessary personal things which then lessens what they think of at the office, enabling them to focus more on work. 

Your employees are not just people who work for you; they’re an integral part of your company’s success no matter what their role may be.

• Motivate and Empower

Employee motivation is key to an organisation’s success. It’s the level of commitment, drive, and energy that a company’s workers bring to the role every day. Without it, companies experience reduced productivity, lower levels of output and it’s likely that the company will fall short of reaching important goals too.

But employee motivation doesn’t always come easily - it’s something that workplace leaders need to nurture and monitor.

Whether your company is currently at the top of their game, or on the way up, employee motivation remains at critical importance at every level. The moment employee motivation drops, revenue, and company accomplishments could soon follow.

“People want guidance, not rhetoric. They need to know what the plan of action is and how it will be implemented. They want to be given responsibility to help solve the problem and the authority to act on it.”

-Howard Schultz, Starbucks

• Promote Trust

A company is made up of several people and conflicts arise at times. It would be beneficial to initiate trust within the company. Resolve conflicts immediately and fairly. Promoting trust boosts relationships in the company greatly and helps achieve bigger results.

Build trust means telling the truth all the time, being transparent and open with the company information and to apologize if any mistake is made.

When your team trusts you, it increases commitment to team goals, communication improves, and ideas flow more freely, increasing creativity and productivity.

• Automate Processes to improve productivity

Automate processes with a combined CRM and ERP solution, to centralise all your data, increase team collaboration, and ease the workload.

Finding ways to automate tasks can also help you increase your productivity and effectiveness at work by freeing up time and attention, reducing stress related to task management, and getting more done.

• Promote Team Collaboration and Communication

It can be difficult for team members to feel committed to a project and motivated to collaborate with other departments if they don’t have the visibility or the understanding of how they impact the big picture.

When there is a strong line of communication between departments, they will develop a strong team relationship that will lead to better results by generating open discussions and new ideas that can boost your company and solve existing issues.

Make sure to use company culture to your advantage, utilize it as a tool to bring your brand on top!