7 Elements that Make a Great Company Culture
“You can have all the right strategy in the world; if you don’t have the right culture, you’re dead.”
– Patrick Whitesell
Corporate culture is a reflection of what your organization stands for. Without culture, everything else doesn’t work. The values of a company are the core of its culture. As the person at the helm of a company, you need to build a powerful company culture.
If you wish to stay ahead of the competition and keep yourself from failing at your goals, then make sure you have the perfect corporate culture using the following elements:
1. Vision
You need a great vision if you wish to maintain the perfect culture. So, start off with a mission or vision statement that will guide your value and give it a purpose. The purpose, in turn, dictates the decisions that your employees make each day.
When established right and displayed all over the company, as well as on online platforms, it even helps orient your customers, suppliers, as well as other stakeholders. For instance, Oxfam uses “a just world without poverty” as its mission statement.
2. Company Values
Company values represent the core of the corporate culture. While the vision dictates the purpose, the values give the company a set of guidelines that dictate the behavior and mindset that are necessary to achieve the vision.
Your company needs to have a set of values that are well-articulated and communicated to all employees and explains how the company plans to serve clients, treat fellow employees, and uphold the necessary professional standards.
3. Corporate Practices
Values are of little importance to the company unless they guide the company practices. For instance, if your value is along the lines of people being your greatest asset, then you need to make sure that you align the practices to reflect the values that you have.
So, whatever your values, you need to make sure that they reinforce the practices and are integrated with the principles of the firm.
4. Learn to Trust
Learn to trust the people that work for you. If you are the type that oversees, takes over projects, and seeks to handle all needs of the business, then you will be in conflict with the trust building process.
What if employees make a mistake? Should they be allowed to repeat the task or will you handle the project yourself because you believe they can’t do any better? Make sure you give employees clear guidelines to ensure they gain confidence and work efficiently and qualitatively.
5. Create a Perfect Working Environment
The external working environment is dictated by the internal thought process, which means you need to design the perfect working environment that will not only allow the workers to feel comfortable, but also give clients a peek into how efficient you are.
Allow employees to work better, and you will stay ahead of competition due to enhanced productivity. You also need to respect the privacy of your employees, because intruding in the employee’s entitlement to privacy can lead to costly legal action.
6. Encourage Growth
A strong company culture aims at encouraging employees to see their job more than just a job, but as a way to grow. Let them own their working space and the ideas that they come up with. Once you have a collaborative environment, you’ll be assured that the employees will be better placed to deliver the company aims.
Employ innovators that will contribute positively to the future of your company in a great way rather than hiring temporary employees.
7. Communicate Properly
This is where most companies fail much often. When you don’t know what is happening in the company, then you are preparing for a disaster. The best companies in the world are highly effective in the way company information, such as news, goals, changes etc. is disseminated. Make sure you maintain a constant level of communication to pass information from one level to another effortlessly.
The Bottom-line
Corporate culture has to be created one step at a time. It’s more than corporate perks and other monetary benefits; a great corporate culture among other intangibles will help recruit and retain the top talent in your industry.
We hope you enjoyed this promoted piece as much as we did!
