A strong company culture helps companies attract and retain the best talent. It also promotes productivity, job satisfaction, employer branding, and even supports the improvement of the organisation’s communication process.
Organisational culture seems like an intangible concept, but there is no doubt when a company has a good or poor culture in force.
A company’s culture is a set of beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours shared by the organisation and its entire workforce. It covers things like how employees relate with each other and with management-level staff, how issues are handled, the level of openness in decision-making, leadership style, company vision, mission, ethics, core values, and so many other elements.
Determining what your organisation’s culture is might involve several company stakeholders, but building and reinforcing it tends to fall largely on the shoulders of HR. The HR unit can support building a strong organisational culture by incorporating company values into functions like internal communications, onboarding programmes, compensation and benefits, performance management, etc.
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Building a strong company culture
1. Define identity
A company’s identity forms a significant part of its work culture. This includes elements like its vision, mission, core values, objectives, etc. It also covers how these elements cascade into everyday activities in the course of work. A company’s identity can also be reflected in its communication style, leadership style, dress code, stance on societal issues, etc.
It’s also essential to have the necessary information about your organisation documented to ensure that the culture remains undiluted regardless of how many new people leave or join the company.
2. Lead by example
One of the fastest ways to build and maintain company culture is to ensure that managers and team lead model all of the right behaviours and attitudes. This helps because their day-to-day interaction with their teams is a more significant driver to influence behavioural change and a spread of the desired attitudes than any work culture training session.
3. Hire the right talent
In the process of recruitment, you must go beyond testing for the required skills, to actively evaluating the candidate to see if the candidate models behaviours consistent with your work culture. Hiring should be based on culture fit, otherwise, the organisation’s culture will slowly erode into something unrecognisable.
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4. Prioritise job satisfaction
An unhappy workforce can affect the overall productivity of your business. HR should actively manage and encourage activities that build job satisfaction through career development initiatives, learning & development programmes, compensation & benefits plan, team bonding activities, a comfortable work environment, etc.
5. Efficient onboarding
An essential aspect of welcoming new hires to your company is to inform them about the company’s culture. In the process of onboarding, communicate the company’s mission, vision, objectives, and core values in clear, realistic terms.
Help them see how their roles, responsibilities, and KPIs tie into the broader company vision to give them a sense of pride in their work and a more profound sense of ownership and connectedness to the company.
6. Rewards & recognition
HR can develop a rewards and recognition programme that motivates employees to embody the company’s culture and core values. Additionally, decisive disciplinary measures should be taken against detractors based on your company’s regulations.
Building a healthy organisational culture might be an expensive, long-term investment, but it does pay off.
