Building a Thriving Company Culture: Why It Matters and How to Achieve It

11 of August, 2023

So you want to build a kickass company culture, huh? Well, you’ve come to the right place. As an HR manager or business owner, creating a thriving company culture should be at the top of your priority list.

Why? Because culture eats strategy for breakfast, as the famous saying goes. You can have the most innovative business plan in the world, but without effective internal communication, and a motivated, engaged workforce rallied behind your mission and values, you’ll never achieve your goals.

Why Company Culture Matters

Company culture is the personality of your business and it matters more than you might think. A strong, positive culture leads to success in so many ways:

Attracting Top Talent

The best employees want to work for companies with an engaging culture. If you build the right environment, you’ll draw in the high-quality talent you need to thrive.

Increased Productivity

When employees feel happy and fulfilled, they work harder and smarter. An upbeat culture boosts creativity, collaboration, and job satisfaction – leading to higher productivity and performance.

Lower Turnover

People who love their company culture tend to stay longer. By cultivating an enjoyable work environment, you’ll retain your best employees and avoid the costs of high turnover.

Better Customer Service

A positive internal culture translates to positive external experiences. Happy, engaged employees provide the best customer service, which leads to higher satisfaction, loyalty, and sales.

So how can you strengthen your company culture? Here are a few tips:

• Communicate your core values and mission. Help employees understand the “why” behind their work.
• Recognize and reward good work. Praise your team members and celebrate wins, big and small.
• Promote collaboration. Foster cooperation over competition through team-building, mentorship, and open communication.
• Be transparent. Share information openly and honestly to build trust in leadership and help everyone feel invested in the company’s success.
• Take feedback seriously. Listen to your employees and make changes to address reasonable concerns. Their input will help shape a culture they want to be a part of.

With the right focus and effort, you can build an amazing company culture. And when you do, your business and your team will thrive like never before.

Leaders Set the Tone: Walk the Walk

As a leader, your words and actions have a huge impact on company culture. If you want an upbeat, collaborative environment, you need to model that behavior. Walk the walk by:

• Communicating openly and positively. Share company news, updates, and your vision for the future to keep everyone engaged and motivated. Be transparent about challenges too—your team will appreciate your honesty.
• Recognizing and rewarding good work. Express appreciation for employees who embody your company values. Whether through bonuses, promotions or simple verbal praise, make people feel valued.
• Promoting collaboration. Encourage teamwork and information sharing across departments. Set an example by cooperating with your own colleagues. When internal competition arises, redirect that energy into external competition with other companies.
• Maintaining an open-door policy. Let your team know you’re available to discuss ideas, concerns or just to chat. Take time to build personal connections with employees at all levels of the organization.
• Modeling work-life balance. Don’t send emails at midnight or work weekends unless absolutely necessary. Take all your paid time off and encourage your team to do the same. Burnout is bad for company culture and productivity.

Your words and actions as a leader have an enormous impact. Model the kind of positive, collaborative culture you want to see, and your team will follow suit. Promote transparency, recognize good work, foster cooperation and maintain an open door. Set boundaries to avoid burnout. The effort will pay off with an energized, devoted team and a thriving business.

Hire for Cultural Fit

To build a thriving company culture, hiring employees who are a good cultural fit is key. Look for candidates whose values, work ethic, and personality align with your company’s core values and mission.

Focus on Values and Personality

When interviewing, ask questions that reveal the candidate’s values and personality, not just their skills and experience. Discuss scenarios where they had to navigate difficult work situations. See how they handled conflict and built relationships. Look for people who are optimistic, collaborative, and growth-minded.

Consider Soft Skills

Technical skills can be taught, but soft skills are harder to develop. Seek out candidates with strong communication, critical thinking, and emotional intelligence. These soft skills are vital for maintaining positive relationships and navigating challenges at work.

Get Team Input

Have current employees on the interview panel. They can spot qualities that will mesh well with the existing culture. Give them a chance to interact with the candidate casually. Their instincts can reveal if the candidate has the right mindset and temperament for your company.

Make an Effort to Retain Good Employees

Once you’ve found people who fit your culture, work to keep them. Provide meaningful work, growth opportunities, and a supportive community. Make sure compensation and benefits meet their needs. When people feel happy, engaged, and valued at work, they’ll want to stay for the long haul.

Building a thriving company culture requires attracting and retaining people who share your values and priorities. By hiring for cultural fit and soft skills, valuing input from your team, and creating an environment where people can do their best work, you’ll cultivate a culture where employees and business alike can thrive.

Encourage Collaboration and Communication

To thrive, a company needs a strong, positive culture. As an HR professional, strengthening your company’s culture should be a top priority. Here are some tips to build a collaborative, communicative environment:

Encourage open communication

Promote an open-door policy where employees feel comfortable approaching managers and executives with questions or concerns. Host regular town halls, roundtables, and open Q&A sessions. Use tools like Slack, Chatter or Microsoft Teams to enable transparent communication across teams and locations.

Foster collaboration

Identify opportunities for cross-functional teams and projects. This allows employees from different departments to work together, building understanding and rapport. Provide spaces for impromptu meetings and brainstorming. Recognize and reward collaborative efforts.

Share company vision and values

Clearly communicate your company’s mission, vision and values to give employees a sense of purpose and shared identity. Discuss these in new hire orientation, employee meetings and through internal communications tools.

Consistently demonstrate these values in leadership and company decisions. Employees who feel aligned with company values tend to be more engaged and productive.

Promote work-life balance

While a thriving company culture values hard work, it also recognizes the importance of rest and rejuvenation. Offer benefits like flexible work hours, generous paid time off, employee assistance programs and childcare subsidies. Make sure managers encourage employees to unplug when off work. Burnout is detrimental to company culture and employee retention.

Using tools like Sesame, you can strengthen company culture through enhanced communication, data-driven insights and streamlined processes. Focusing on collaboration, work-life balance and shared purpose will help build an environment where your company and employees can thrive.

Reward and Recognize Strong Company Culture

Rewarding and recognizing employees who contribute to a strong company culture is key. As an HR manager or business owner, make sure you:

Praise and Spotlight Cultural Champions

Publicly praise and spotlight employees who actively contribute to company culture. Share stories of their impact on internal communication channels like a company newsletter or intranet. These “cultural champions” will appreciate the recognition and serve as role models for others.

Offer Incentives

Provide incentives and rewards for employees who go above and beyond to strengthen company culture. Things like gift cards, extra time off, or leadership opportunities. These types of perks show you value cultural efforts and make employees more likely to prioritize it.

Tie Compensation to Culture

For managers and executives, link a portion of compensation or bonuses to company culture initiatives. Require participation in culture-building programs or evaluate how well they cascade values and priorities to their teams. This motivates leaders to actively shape and improve company culture.

Celebrate Wins

Big or small, celebrate any wins related to company culture. Did employee satisfaction increase in the latest survey? Did a team bonding event go really well? Celebrate these wins with the team or company to highlight progress and bring people together. These celebrations boost morale, motivation, and a sense of shared purpose.

Overall, when you reward and recognize employees who contribute to company culture, you incentivize the types of behaviors and outcomes you want to see. People will make company culture a priority because they see that you value it through the rewards and recognition you provide.

Using tools like employee surveys, communication platforms and people analytics in Sesame can help you identify your cultural champions and wins to celebrate. Strengthening your culture will lead to a thriving, successful company.