Company Culture

Company culture can be described as the shared values and attitudes of a company. Employees impact the company culture in a big way. Oftentimes a company will establish a set of core values and a mission statement, but it is the employees who live out these values and put their own stamp on them that creates the company culture.

Company culture has a real impact on the bottom line. When a team share the same values, they are all on the same page and collaboration increases leading to open discussion before decisions are made.

Company culture is a concept that has been around since the fifties, however, studies show that training today still does not focus on sharing the values of an organisation. Instead, training is primarily implemented with a focus on compliance. Often when a new hire starts in an organisation, business practises and technical skill development are the emphasis of training.

A positive and strong company culture benefits all stakeholders of the organisation. Employees will be more engaged and happy in their work. Positive company culture also brings more benefits such as increased employee retention and makes the company a place where others want to come and work.

A positive culture and happy employees lead to increased efficiencies and increased productivity. Staff will understand what makes others happy what they need to be doing and how they should be doing it. An open and positive culture with clear communication channels will also allow an organisation to be ready for change and ahead of the curve. 

After an organisation develops a positive company culture and begins to regularly communicate how to achieve and maintain this culture, the next step is to develop a procedure for when new employees are onboarded.

This time is a critical time for new employees to start as they mean to go on and understand that they fit into the organisation and that their voice matters. Cultural training for a new employee should indicate to them just how they can positively impact the company culture.

Culture training needs to show a new hire their role in creating the desired company culture. The created values should be the basis on which new procedures are created and how these policies are implemented.

When a new employee is introduced to this way of thinking with culture training, they will be much more likely to remember these values and make all of their decisions with these attitudes and values in mind.

It is also important not to end culture training when employees walk in the door. Values change and ideas develop. Ongoing culture training should be something that is carried out annually. Leaders should conduct culture audits and survey their employees regularly identifying how they work and if their values align with their role.

One of the most important parts of maintaining a positive company culture is to keep communication channels open. When core values are established and well accepted, these values can be used as part of the hiring and interviewing process to make sure that employees with similar values are selected.