Company culture is an integral part of business and the backbone of a happy workforce. Organisations lacking a positive company culture will ultimately find that employees will struggle to find value in their work, leading to a demotivated workforce and consequently a negative impact on the bottom line. So, as you can see, it’s important to create a distinct and visible company culture for your business to help employees perform to their best ability. Believe it or not, your employees are paying close attention to your culture and they will be talking about it on a daily basis, it’s important that these conversations and experiences are positive.
Why it matters?
Essentially, company culture is the personality of a company. It defines the workplace and includes an array of elements from work environment, vision, mission and expectations. Below we have defined a variety of benefits as to why company culture really matters and why it’s important to get it right:
RECRUITMENT
Creating a positive internal culture has a huge impact on being able to attract potential employees. Why? Because it gives you a significant competitive advantage. As we all know, we’re living within a digital age – full of online forums, discussions and a plethora of social media platforms that we’re all communicating on and collaborating in on a daily basis.
If your current employees are consistently singing your praises, be it online or down at the pub talking to their friends, your company suddenly becomes an extremely desirable place to work. When you’re looking for top talent you can also sing your own praises in your recruitment advertising and at interview. Potential employees may even look on websites such as ‘Glassdoor’ which has a dedicated area whereby over 600 000 companies worldwide are rated by former and current employees. People want to work for organisations with a good reputation and umpteen fantastic reviews from employees.
Your advertising, whether it’s on your website, a job website or via a recruitment consultancy can really reflect your company’s culture and brand. Below is an excerpt from a job vacancy at Innocent drinks. Innocent is well-known for its quirky marketing and branding, but this isn’t where the fun stops. It’s embedded throughout their organisation and company culture and is extremely visible in their recruitment advertising.
“In return for everything you can bring, we can offer you an exciting, challenging role in a fast-growing and dynamic business, with plenty of career opportunities in the UK and across Europe as well as a competitive rewards package. We also have some great clubs, a free breakfast and as many smoothies as you can shake a stick at.
Take a look at our reward page for more details. If you think you have everything we’re looking for and more, then we’d love to hear from you. You’ll need to get your skates on though, as applications close soon. Dolly Parton may have worked Nine to Five but you don’t have to. We’re all about being healthy and happy here at innocent so we’re open to a chat about flexible working. No promises, but we reckon that if it’s good for you, then it’s good for us. No agencies please.”
RETENTION & JOB SATISFACTION
Once you’ve recruited some fantastic talent, the last thing you want is for them to leave! A positive culture fosters a sense of loyalty and they are, of course much more likely to stay if they are valued and enjoy coming into work every day! Those companies who invest in the well-being of their employees will be rewarded with happy and motivated employees who want to do their very best for the company, instead of looking for their next opportunity outside of the organisation.
For example, you only have to look at the reviews of Google on Glassdoor. Google is renowned for its innovative technology as well as offering employees a fantastic culture within which to work. Voted as one of the top places to work for nearly a decade, Google has a whopping 10 000 reviews on this platform and achieves an average 4.5/5 stars and 89% of employees would recommend it as a great place to work to a friend. This is a huge feat, especially with so many reviews and this is predominantly down to company culture.
OUTPUT/PRODUCTIVITY
Strong company cultures have long been linked to increased rates of productivity. There is a subtle but undeniable connection between your company’s culture and its profitability. It’s a no-brainer that employees are both motivated and more dedicated to those employers who invest in their well-being and career progression. Employees will of course suffer with less work-related stress, which will boost health and as a result, minimise employee absenteeism and improve overall work performance.
Employee churn can be incredibly expensive, especially if the role requires a very specific skillset. If your employees enjoy coming to work and feel fulfilled with what they do, you will be encouraging them to invest their talent in your company long-term. In addition, these employees should be more self-sufficient and therefore require less management from you. By fostering both trust and the desire to do things well, you can give more time to growing your business rather than supervising it, which is incredibly powerful.
As you can see, culture is engrained in everything you do and everything you stand for. Although it can seem too big to be controlled by managers, every strong leader has the power to improve their culture by valuing their employees. One of the best things about building a positive culture is that it can be done with any budget, at any size company and within any industry. As long as employers take the time to genuinely invest in the happiness and well-being of their workforce, a positive culture will grow and thrive.
Later this month, we will be talking about how to create a positive company culture in a number of easy steps. The start of the New Year always signifies a time whereby we set both personal and business goals and so why not make your company culture a priority, because this time next year, you will reap the reward. If you need help implementing your strategy, or help with any other HR matter, please contact us on 01453 297557 or email enquiries@peepshr.co.uk.
