How to define your company culture
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02/08/2018
Companies are defined by their cultures. Culture dictates how employees see themselves, how they see the management, and gives them a sense of value and pride in what they do. Establishing a company culture from scratch, however, can be tough, and the whole process may get pushed to the back of your to-do list.
Years of working in the highly competitive recruitment markets of Melbourne and Sydney has shown KLC the importance of a clearly defined company culture for attracting, and retaining, the best talent. Here are a few easy tips to help establish a culture that will engender a positive and productive atmosphere in your company.
Listen to your employees when defining your company culture.
1. Listen to your employees
They work for you, and the company culture needs to work for them. The best-performing organisations are those where employees feel empowered in informing the direction of movement. One good way to get employees involved in the process is to ask them to write a shortlist of words they believe should represent the values of your business. The words which occur most frequently will give you an idea of what is important to your employees, and therefore the direction your company culture should be taking.
2. Put your culture into writing
One of the challenges of establishing a company culture is that the ideas can seem quite abstract. By codifying your company culture, you create an easy-to-refer-to document which demonstrates how the core principles should apply in practice. This process is also key to attracting the right candidates when vacancies arise. Having a clearly defined and readable culture can be an important deciding factor for highly skilled candidates choosing between job offers.
3. Make your culture flexible
Having a codified company culture is important, but not at the expense of flexibility. Whether you work in a not-for-profit organisation in Sydney or a large corporation in Melbourne, no successful organisation remains static. Your company should be constantly growing, and adapting to changes in the market-place, and your culture should reflect this. By factoring how your company intends to deal with large scale change into a culture document, you can offset some of the unsettling impacts which effect staff morale and productivity.
Employees shouldn’t just be involved in creating policy, but with its ongoing relevance. This is the opposite of a vicious circle. By creating an atmosphere where employees feel empowered to voice their opinions on company culture you can ensure it continues to work in their best interests as you move forward.
Your culture should be flexible to adapt to changes in your business
4. Foster the right atmosphere
You want your company to be a great place to work, and that starts with culture. Offering ongoing training and upskilling opportunities is attractive to potential talent, and means that your current employees feel they get more out of work than just a salary. By creating a climate of learning, you motivate employees to gain new skills and apply them in their day-to-day roles.
Transparency is another important step to creating a productive culture. Including the way in which resources are distributed within the company culture will allow the employees who interact with these resources on a daily basis to feedback on whether the current allocations are working, and help project-managers make changes to increase efficiency.
Finally create an atmosphere that celebrates success. This shouldn’t just be landmark moments, but recognitions of individual and group successes in all aspects of company life that reinforce the collective effort behind your organisation.
The right culture can make a huge difference to your company, especially when it comes to hiring. With years of specialised recruiting experience, KLC knows what it takes to attract the right talent for your organisation. For more information reach out to KLC today.
