Company Culture - A Brief Overview
Establishing your company culture and ensuring it’s reflected in all aspects of your business is an extremely important factor of success in strategic company goals.
So, why is company culture SO important? Read on my friend, I’m here to share some insight!
Company culture, or the “personality” of a business is the building block of YOUR BUSINESS. Let’s say you own a restaurant – well, there are a lot of restaurants- but your company culture is what sets YOU apart from the other restaurants. It’s not JUST your products – it’s how you present them and what values and qualities are reflected in them, your employees, management, marketing – the whole business. Top to Bottom.
Important, right?
So. How do you establish it? It sounds MUCH easier than it really is, trust me. You have to LIVE it, from start to finish. Below you’ll find some examples on how you can inject your company culture in different aspects of your business:
Recruitment
Employees look for more than just job requirements and expectations when they look at job postings, so this is a great opportunity to show your prospective employee—and even customers—your company culture. Make sure your job posting “feels” like your business—are you more relaxed? Strictly business? Show that here, first!
Interviewing
Interviewing can be made much easier if you provide your interviewer with questions that not only give them a good idea of how the applicant will fulfill job duties, but also how they would fit in with your company vision and other employees. This is how you can give your applicants an idea of company culture—share what your company values are and how what your company does every day to align with those values. You won’t regret it.
Onboarding & Training
Your Onboarding & Training processes should reflect your business and it’s values—this will ensure that you have quality employees from the very beginning that know how important your culture is to you. Some employers take time with their new employees to go over a set of “core values” that are used for evaluation in other areas, too.
Performance Management
Remember the core values I mentioned in Onboarding & Training? These should reflect your company culture AND be used to evaluate your ongoing employees’ performance. Do you want your employees to treat your customers like family? Use your review process to keep these values at the forefront of your employee’s minds!
Policies & Procedure
Your handbook will help ensure that your employees know exactly what your values are. I always recommend you include a portion about your company culture in this documentation, it can help set the standard early, and help guide you through creation of other policies.
Community
The latest trends have shown that your customers want to know what you stand for—what you’re all about. Let them know! Some companies will even include an “Our Values” page on their website to let their customers know what values are important to them, and what steps they take to make sure they don’t miss the mark.
Marketing
Values-Based Marketing is becoming more and more popular as consumer trends have changed to a more values-based approach. Use your company culture to show your customers just how you put it into action for THEM!
So Much More!
As you can see, company culture shines through every part of your business if you do it right.
Do you need help establishing your company culture or really letting it shine? Contact Prism Consulting today to help create a strategic plan for your small business!
