Company culture is a crucial part of having a successful business. Everyone’s familiar with Google’s famous fun culture, but that may not reflect your company. You need to find a match that suits your needs and your industry. Having an effective company culture is even more important for small businesses! The only way to differentiate yourself from the big players and attract top-tier talent, are intangibles like that. Company culture affects every part of your business, from hiring the best talent to attracting the most profitable customers. When your corporate culture is toxic or unclear, it leads to low job satisfaction, which leads to high turnover. Company cultures need to grow organically, but they can be nudged in the right direction.
Why It’s Essential
An effective company culture permeates everything that you do and affects your entire company. A positive culture gives you an advantage over your competitors in many key areas:
- Customers – An effective culture means your workplace is predictable and organised. This will attract the best and most profitable customers. They rely on your predictability and organisation to meet their own needs.
- Staff and longevity – Most of the top-tier employees, are already working. If you want to attract them to your company, you need to provide an incentive to leave where they work and join you. Increasingly, millennials state that good company cultures are a reason to accept less money. In the end, not only will you have an effective company culture that gives you the opportunity to hire top-tier employees, but the staff will also stay longer, reducing the cost of recruiting.
- Goal – Everyone knows what you’re working toward, and everyone knows their place in the picture, making it more likely that your business will succeed.
The Pitfalls of a Weak Company Culture
Currently, possible employees have more opportunities than ever before; both online and offline. Companies are in a hiring frenzy, meaning your company must create an environment that will attract the best employee. In a research study by Deloitte, 94% of executives and 88% of employees say an effective company culture is crucial to business success and vital to work performance. Your culture is everything you say, from what is not acceptable, to what you do, and what actions are not tolerated. According to research done by CultureIQ, companies are ranked 20% higher by both customers and employees when they have a robust and effective culture. The pitfalls of a weak culture are that your organisation rots from the inside. Turnover is high, employees are less motivated, production declines, and your customers evaporate.
How Can You Implement a Positive Culture
Behaviour is the key to spreading your positive culture. No matter what is said, actions speak louder than words. The executive branch of your organisation must model behaviour for the employees below them. As employees encounter actions that are not tolerated and work that is not acceptable, it will become apparent to the entire organisation what your culture is. It is crucial that this is demonstrated from the top down and no one is immune from consequences or rewards. Bento, the financial planning firm, is a great example of this. Their corporate motto is “Be human,” and executives ensure that they go into the community and give financial advice to the underprivileged for free. It is not a surprise that Bento is named as having a fantastic culture and has its pick of the greatest financial minds.
Core Values of a Company Culture
It’s difficult to define how to determine your company culture, but there are some steps that most agree on.
- Unwavering guidance from the top – The executive branch has to be consistent with the culture they want to implement.
- Examine your purpose – Corporations with strong cultures know why they exist beyond profit and can quickly explain their vision to outsiders.
- Examine your core values – Whatever your culture is; it will start by clearly defining your organization’s core values.
- Invest in what you believe – When you determine your corporate culture, ask yourself what you’d be willing to invest in monetarily to make happen. Anything you’re not willing to spend money on is not a true belief of your culture.
How Oracle Tree Can Help:
Oracle Tree is about more than digital marketing in Australia. We have been helping organisations create a plan for a healthy corporate culture for years. If you are interested in finding out what Oracle Tree can do for you, click here for more information.
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