Building a strong company culture is not just a strategy, it is the foundation that holds every great company you’ve ever known. With a great company culture in place, a company or corporate organization can scale effectively, maintain high quality standards and work with employees who are enthusiastic to help the business grow.
As a small business owner still climbing the business ladder, there is a need to start now and cultivate not just a company culture but a strong and positive one that propels your business with the right people by your side.
Therefore, this blog post will explain in depth what a company culture is, why you need to build a positive one and how to build a strong corporate or company culture for your business.
What Is Company Culture?
Culture, in the general sense, is defined as the people’s way of life. In the business world, a company culture in that same sense is seen as the way a company behaves and interacts both with employees and customers.
In a more defined state, a corporate culture is the shared belief, mission, vision, behaviors and practices that govern a business or organization. This culture reflects in all areas of business operation such as leadership and management, employee recruitment, communication, employee behavior, customer interaction and to name but a few.
Why Does Your Small Business Need A Positive Work Culture?
Every business has a culture, be it positive or negative. A toxic work culture leads to stress, conflicts, and unhealthy competition among employees.
This in turn, affects work productivity and the brand image as a whole. Therefore, as a small business owner, there is a need to build a positive work culture.
Through a positive work culture, your business can achieve the following:
-Attract and retain talented employees who are motivated and ready to work.
-Work with employees who are ready to go the extra mile to improve the overall work-flow.
-Create an environment where teamwork and collaboration are the order of the day.
-Provide excellent customer service that will improve your business reputation and lead to customer loyalty.
A great company culture positively impacts everything from employee satisfaction to customer retention and overall business success.
With a positive work culture, you can create a space where your employees feel seen, heard and aligned with your business mission and values. This improves productivity and also helps to foster long-term growth.
How To Build A Strong Company Culture
1. Define your business core values
Building a strong company culture starts with you as the leader. Define the core values you want your company to be known for. This should align with your business goals, mission and vision. A defined value serves as the foundation for your company’s work culture.
For instance, if your core value is transparency and accountability, it has to be evident in your interaction with everyone you come across in your company.
By identifying and embodying these values early on, you make it easy for your employees and customers to live by them.
2. Live by the values you’ve laid out
Whatever values you define for your company should be seen in your day-to-day operations. Whether it’s transparency, open communication, a collaborative spirit, resilience or hard work. As a small business owner, you need to live by these rules from the get-go to help you set a good foundation for your employees.
Therefore, it doesn’t matter if you have just 5 or 10 employees. Living out your company values will make it easy for your employees to see you as a model worth emulating.
For example, imagine hiring someone in your little start-up firm where the team spirit fills the air; there is no way that individual is not going to conform to the norms of the workplace.
3. Hire employees who fit into your company’s culture
Hire employees who fit into the standard you’ve raised for your business. While skill and experience are very much needed, an employee who doesn’t align with your business values and goals will not work with maximum productivity.
When you hire employees who are both talented and align with your work culture, you will have a more conducive, productive and engaged workplace.
For example, a talented employee who doesn’t love working together with others can’t thrive in a company where the core value is team work.
4. Encourage open communication
Communication is key, and while this cuts across all life spheres, it’s very important when it comes to business. Building a company culture that includes communication is a good way to set your small business up for success.
Create communication channels and encourage your employees to share their innovative ideas and give you feedback based on their work systems.
These communication channels could be anything from hosting weekly or monthly staff meetings to randomly asking your employees about their work and what can be done to improve the standards.
On the other hand, stay open and transparent with your employees. Keep them updated on sales trends, ideas and project outcomes.
The goal of building a strong culture that includes communication is to help your employees see that they’re an important part of your business growth. This ultimately gives them a sense of belonging.
5. Recognize and celebrate employee achievements
A positive and strong company culture recognizes and celebrates success- whether big or small. Create an atmosphere where your employees know that their hard work is being noted and highly appreciated.
Put systems in place that reward employees’ achievements. This could range from a trip to another state or country to shout outs from other team members. Recognition and appreciation make your employees feel valued and push them to uphold the corporate culture that governs an organization.
For example, there was once a team leader heading a particular sector of a company. Despite how hard she worked to keep her team members coordinated and increase revenue, she was never appreciated. However, every single mistake she made was always pinpointed, and she was always scolded. At some point, she gave up, focused only on what she was supposed to do, and stopped going the extra mile for the company.
This happens when you don’t look out for the people who work for you.
Building and upholding your corporate culture helps to reduce this.
6. Continuously monitor and improve your company culture
Build your company culture with flexibility in mind. As a small business owner, there will come a time when your business will need to scale; during this time, you’ll encounter new challenges and experiences.
Therefore, be open to change and improvement. Build a culture that is adaptable and open to continuous learning.
Conclusion
There are so many important things to put in place for your business growth, and while most of them require finances, building a strong company culture doesn’t.
Cultivating a strong and positive work culture sets the foundation for a conducive working environment. Additionally, it attracts the right people to your business, which helps to improve productivity and foster long-term growth.
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