How to Develop a Company Culture

A good company culture is one of the essential factors for any business that takes employee engagement and satisfaction seriously.

Think of companies like Google, Zappos, and Apple - these are businesses with people literally lining up to get in the doors, but what is it that makes these companies so attractive to potential employees?

What is company culture?

You can think of company culture like an organisation’s DNA. It’s why employees dress, communicate, and behave the way they do while at work. It includes the degree to which employees are honest and ethical, how flexible the company is in its approach to working hours, and how well and frequently staff are rewarded for good work.

Take this snippet from Google’s company culture page for example:

“We strive to maintain the open culture often associated with startups, in which everyone is a hands-on contributor and feels comfortable sharing ideas and opinions. In our weekly all-hands (“TGIF”) meetings—not to mention over email or in the cafe—Googlers ask questions directly to Larry, Sergey and other execs about any number of company issues. Our offices and cafes are designed to encourage interactions between Googlers within and across teams, and to spark conversation about work as well as play.”

From this we can see that Google:

• creates an environment where every staff member feels as though they’re making a valuable contribution
• promotes and encourages collaboration and idea-sharing
• has an open-door policy with regards to top level management
• values the fun side of life as well as the work that they do

So what can you do to reinforce the desired company culture in your organisation?

Let the common goal be known

Many companies know what they’d like their company culture to be, or the values they’d like their staff to embody while at work, but fail to effectively communicate these.

The first step is to ensure that the desired company culture is common knowledge to all staff - in fact, your company culture should be evident even to those not working in your organisation, but that comes with time - and this can be done as simply as by putting it up on the wall.

I.e. “In this organisation we go out of our way to wow our clients.”

Acknowledge and reward when it goes right

One of the best ways to reinforce your desired company culture is to publicly acknowledge when your employees get it right. If your goal is to create an atmosphere where above all else you focus on ensuring that clients you deal with leave in awe of your outstanding service, make a show of catching your employees doing the right thing - and make sure his or her coworkers hear it too.

What is the company culture like where you work? Could it be better? Let us know in the comments.

Staff Training is a soft skills training company with more than 60 short courses on offer. Visit our HR Resource Centre to download a number of free HR Tools, including various Training Needs Analyses, Tracking documents, and the Definitive SDF Guide. Contact us at (021) 839 3021 or drop us an email.