Culture Matters: Build It and They Will Come (And Stay)

As a growing small business, we have been lucky to have hired some bright and talented professionals through our internship program. New hires may understand the job they’ve been hired for and the expectations that come with that role but are they ready to acclimate within your culture is a question we have asked ourselves, and one you will have to ask yourself when you make that next hire. Office culture matters and will be a big reason why people stay or leave in today’s job market.

?It’s not enough today to expect new hires or interns, who may have never worked in an office environment, to understand how to operate within your office setting. Let’s be honest, as an intern, do you really have a full understanding of your role and what the office dynamics are? I know way back in the day, I didn’t know what to expect each day from my internships. I knew what I was supposed to do, but I didn’t have a system where the employer spent a lot of time showing me the ropes or mentoring me. I was cheap (free) labor. Most of what I learned about how to act in an office setting comes from my upbringing and the values I learned at home and the expectations my parents had for me. With this in mind, I have tried to take a different approach here at Miller/Wenhold Capitol Strategies and Miller Wenhold Association Management.

?Hiring today is more challenging than ever, especially for a small business. We don’t have the same budgets as our large counterparts. We don’t have unlimited budgets to woo new hires. We don’t have the fancy spending accounts and other “luxury” benefits that our large counterparts do to attract top-tier talent. That’s okay. We don’t have to compete with them. We just need to build a strong work culture that focuses on the things that are important to our employees. I think here at MWAM and MWCS we continue to try and do just that. I tend to be old school in my thinking but have come around to changing how we operate, and it frankly has been the best business decision I’ve made.

?Our culture isn’t perfect, but it is focused on family first mentality. I look at our employees as an extension of my own family. Like any family, we have our disagreements, but we work together on solutions that move us forward. We don’t always agree, but every team member has the freedom and is urged to offer ideas that help us grow and make us a better firm.?It’s not simply no we can’t do something. We talk it through, and we work together on a solution that works best for the firm and our clients. Some things we can do and others, which may make sense, we can’t due to budgetary or human resources restraints.

?Growth and getting the right mix of people have become more challenging. It takes longer to vet the right person. It takes longer to cull through resumes to find not the perfect match, but the match that is not only qualified to do the job, but also a good fit for the rest of the personalities on the team. In a sense, you are interviewing a person for their professional ability as well as their personal skills. A candidate not having both key ingredients can make it a challenging work environment. Just look at how Congress works today. You have 535 different views and opinions. Not bad to have differing opinions, but when differing opinions mean your internal working environment turns into a battlefield, your business will lose, and you will struggle to keep talented people on the team. Imagine if your office culture was that of what we see in Congress. You would spend most of your time dealing with internal issues than servicing your clients and making money. You would end up losing money with high turnover and people not wanting to work in the environment you’ve created. Divided teams would naturally be created that end up working against each other instead of working with each other. Hard to run a successful business that way. Creating this negative culture falls solely on the CEO. There is no pushing the blame downhill. Your company, your culture. Own it!

?Nothing is perfect and we are in no way a perfect organization, but we have tried to add more family, fun, opportunity, growth, and flexibility into our model that make up for some of the things our large counterparts can offer their employees. I think this has helped with who we are and why we continue to grow (and people stay). You’d be surprised how a quick stop by an employee’s office asking about their weekend, vacation, or birthday, means to them and your culture. If employees know you care and are interested in them beyond the work they perform for you, then they are more likely to work harder for you and not look at coming to the office as simply punching a time clock (or serving time).

?As we’ve grown and as our intern program continues to draw more interest, it got me to thinking that as an employer, I not only have to help train new full-time hires as well as interns, on how to do their jobs, but I need to spend an equal amount of time coaching them on how to fit into an office environment. Seems simple to many, but if this is your first job or first internship in an office setting (especially post-pandemic where virtual was the way you got to take advantage of these opportunities), you may not know what to expect or how to act.

?First-timers (or young professionals) may be used to doing things a certain way at home or school. They may have never had to be managed and understand the roles and etiquette of a manager-employee relationship. During COVID, they may have done everything virtual, which means they didn’t have to dress for success so to speak, or didn’t directly interact with people in-person. That has caused real challenges for new people entering the workforce.?New hires and interns don't know your culture. They may not know that your office is not a place where you get to work at your own leisure, as they may have during COVID or while in school. They may not understand what a deadline means. You get the point. This becomes a whole new world for them and a learning curve. If you don’t address this as part of your overall training, you will find yourself battling issues later that could have been avoided upfront. It could mean the difference between grooming a talented team member and ending up with a problem child. Coach and mentor them early to avoid the latter.

?As we continue to grow, our initial training includes office culture and work expectations coaching and mentoring. You'd think these were commonsense things everyone should know, but don't make the mistake of thinking they should know – they don’t.

?Frankly, I have been surprised at how much time and energy we have to put into this area. The world they say has changed since when I started my first job. Today’s parents, who I am one, have changed from when I grew up. My parents were strict and big on teaching us manners and how to do something as simple as shaking a person’s hand. Today these skills are not things instilled in today’s younger workforce. Today our younger workforce has grown up on electronics and less vocal communication and business etiquette training. It’s something as an employer you need to address when you onboard them. If you don’t, expect to find yourself pulling your hair out when they do things you don’t understand. Save yourself the hair and the frustration by training and mentoring them on workplace etiquette and “commonsense” business practices like looking someone in the eye or how a firm handshake matters versus the wet noodle handshake. How to dress for success. How to answer the phone. And how to craft an internal communication that doesn’t include emojis or text slang.

?As an employer, your culture will be more enjoyable if it’s built around working with new hires on expectations and how to become part of the fabric of your brand. Brand matters and those who represent your brand matter even more. If you have someone unable to buy into that brand and how you operate, you will lose clients and lose top employees. People will not want to work with others who don’t buy in or understand your brand. People will not want to come to work if lines and sides are drawn. It shouldn’t be an are you with us or against us environment. It should be one team, one mission.

?Change isn’t easy, especially when you’ve been doing things or grew up doing things a certain way, but it is critical to your long-term business success. We have changed and continue to change. For us, the model is built around a family-style approach to what we do. For you, it could be something completely different to who you are, your brand, and what’s important to your team. Whatever it is, trust me, new hires will become those who end up retiring from your small business if they feel valued and they understand your culture and expectations. That comes from training and mentoring them on day one of them walking through the door of your business. High turnover not only costs you time, but it costs you money. Every time you train someone and then they leave in one to two years, you’ve just wasted money. Invest in your employees and they will invest in you. Train and mentor them on your culture and you both will be better and more successful for it. Remember, your intern program can become your farm team. Those who intern for us get a good feel of what we do and who we are. It’s like a tryout for both of us to see if it’s a long-term match. We have a track record of interns coming back to work here full time and I believe it’s in part because of the work experience they gain, but also the culture. Culture and expectations matter. It’s a two-way street to success for your business and your employees.

?From one small business to others, something to consider as you grow. We are still learning, and our culture continues to change as the needs of our clients and employees change.

?If you build it, they will come (and stay).

Culture checklist:

Not every business is the same and not all these ideas will be applicable, but they are a helpful guide to building a stronger healthier work culture.

Building a healthy culture is a two-way street – give and take from both the employer (management) and employees is the starting point. If there isn’t buy-in and give and take from both sides, you both will fail.

Finding the right team is hard today. It’s not just about salary. It’s about salary, plus other benefits, plus work life. It’s a balancing act for employers. I personally will take a chance on someone who has less policy experience but brings a positive attitude and willingness to be a great teammate. I can teach the policy side. A new employee can learn the issues. Some may disagree, but you are not likely to change someone’s personality easily if at all. This means I may spend more time on actual job training and less on culture training. This is a long-term savings for me. After a year or two, the employee will have a good grasp of their job role, which helps us grow and thrive. This person also becomes a positive influence within our firm, which also helps us grow and thrive.

Once you define your culture and how you want to implement it, you go out and find the team to build around it. That is hard enough, but the hardest part will be the trust factor. Do you trust your employees, and do they trust you? If you allow employees to work from home, do you trust they will get the work done? As an employee, should your employer trust you to get your work done? As an employer, I can tell you firsthand it’s a balancing act. On the one hand, I know there will be time in the day they aren’t working at home. If I have built the right team, I can trust they will get what they need done and meet the deadlines we set. If I don’t trust an employee, then I spend too much time worrying about them not doing what they are getting paid to do.

At Miller/Wenhold we don’t have a standard work-from-home policy. We are a collaborative group and it's hard when the team isn’t here to be part of the discussion. We do however make exceptions to the rule on a case-by-case basis. That has worked. It’s a happy medium for me and seems to have been a plan that has worked with our team. Not perfect, but it is a compromise from both sides.

I ask the question; how can I promote you or really depend on you when you aren’t here taking part in the team activities. You can’t do all that via Zoom. People can disagree, but it's not an effective way to build your culture. If people only know each other virtually, how do you build internal working relationships? How do you prove your worth to the team? How do you go about justifying wanting a raise or promotion? Again, this may work for us, but not for you. It is something to consider as you look to build your culture and recruit teammates to build your brand around.

Employers and management must believe and put into practice a system that values employees and the work they do. It cannot be lip service. Words of affirmation are useful and help boost an employee, but if that’s all they get, then they will go elsewhere for the opportunities and/or benefits they are missing out on.

Employers and employee roles are very different and as an employee, you cannot compare yourself or say your role is greater than that of the CEO.?Know your role and your lane. For new employees, it's critical for the CEO to work with them on expectations not just for their work role, but their role within the firm in cultivating a healthy and fun workplace.

Employers cannot make all the money. Yes, it’s the employers who are at risk and spend more time than most of their employees putting in the sweat equity needed to grow the business. This includes working seven days a week. Missing family activities. Skipping vacations. Employees should not compare themselves and their role to that of the CEO. There is a difference, and the roles frankly are very different. Each has different worries. It’s important for employees to understand that just because they don’t see their boss working or stressing, doesn’t mean they aren’t.

There are sacrifices employers make, but that is why they get rewarded (hopefully) with a thriving business. Employers must value the role of each employee, who yes, helps grow and sustain the business through the work they do. This doesn’t mean you need to overpay employees, but you need to be fair about how they get compensated. Here at MW, we have a policy that as we get new clients, we set aside a portion of each month’s fees for salary increases and bonuses. This way our team has a direct stake in our success. We also have a BD program where if an employee sets us up with a new client lead that we end up getting them as a client, they get a bonus equally agreed to by management and employee. It's significant.

Employees cannot go into any job with the idea of it’s my turn for a promotion or I need to be paid more. If that is all you’re focused on, then it will be a challenge for you to succeed and hard for an employer to keep you. It’s a lose-lose for both. Employees must figure out what they want out of their careers and work with an employer on creating a path to succeed. We do that here and so far, knock on wood, it has worked. As an employer, I cannot provide some things, just not in our budget to do so, but we are upfront with employees about what’s possible and what’s not. Both sides must be realistic if the culture is going to be a healthy and fun place to work each day.

Employers need to invest annually in their employees if they expect to keep a healthy culture. We’ve talked about valuing an employee. Words of affirmation are great, but they don’t pay the bills. If you offer low wages and limited benefits and no real opportunity for advancement and instead the employee gets more work and less family time or opportunity to grow in their role, then this employee is a throw-away or non-essential employee you as an employer believe you can easily replace. It's not until they are gone that you may have to rethink that and then it's too late.

Creating that healthy culture includes working with new employees from day one on how their role is valued. You may not be able to pay them a six-figure salary, but you can give them other things like great flexibility with childcare. You can offer them more vacation. Do the out of the box thinking to help make your employees feel valued, but also that they are a significant part of the growth of your business. It’s our business, not your business is how I like to refer to things here. We all have a stake in its success.

Healthy culture must include flexibility. This was a hard one for me early on. My work experience was very different than what the workforce expects today. Having one employee, your culture building is easy. Having 2-3 employees the same. Once you get to four or more employees, your role as a CEO change as does how you need to look at building your team. You simply can’t make everyone happy all the time, nor should you try. You will wear yourself out if you try. I have tried to be upfront and honest with our team. I say we will not always agree, but don’t be afraid to ask. If we can do it and it makes sense, we will. If it doesn’t and we can’t, we won’t. It may make sense, but the financials may not make it possible today, but it could in the future.

We are now up to 12 employees and the more teammates we add, the more challenging the culture build becomes. Take time to get to know your team. It’s a daily drop by their office making sure their work is good and that they personally are good. Get to know things about them. Employees want to know you care. Employees need to do the same. All these things are a two-way street. If I spend my time caring and investing in you, a healthy culture means you do the same. We spend time doing things as a team. We do a Friday networking or happy hour in the firm. It’s an opportunity for us to put work aside and talk about each other and what the weekend will bring. We did a hot wing challenge. We brought in an Oculus and had team members play games. It's little things like that which show your team it's not all work.

It's important for employees to also understand there are limits. The office is not a frat house or a keg party. Happy hour doesn’t equate to drink until you puke. At this stage you are grown-ass adults, act like it. As an employer, you may have to be clear on the limits and not just let things happen. Letting things happen only creates the give an inch take a mile model. That is the last thing you want, and the last thing employees need. Again, the two-way street philosophy.

Every day or every team meeting is an opportunity for an employer to cultivate the culture they are striving for. To help with that, make your team part of the build. Make them come up with ideas to help strengthen the team. We do something as simple as a question or the week like what was your favorite vacation? Simple, but it’s a fun exercise that lets everyone learn about their teammates. Sounds corny, but it has been a success here.

This is just a snapshot of how we work daily to build our culture. It’s a snapshot of how we look to train and mentor new employees on our culture and brand. As someone who wears and represents the MW brand, it's my job to make sure they not only know how to do their job effectively but that they feel valued and seen as a key part of the family. This process isn’t easy and no one way to achieve success, but these are things that have worked (or are working) for us.

If you build it, they will come. The key is keeping them and not having them leave.