Company culture is often a deciding factor for people when considering what types of positions to apply for and accept. Employees want to come to work and feel welcomed and appreciated in their work environment. In order to retain and recruit better employees, creating a strong culture is vital. Here are five areas to focus on when building a culture.
Develop a core mission
The first part of building a strong culture is having a strong mission statement. Your employees should come to work every day knowing exactly what they’re working towards accomplishing. In addition to developing a mission, establish core values that every team member should strive to embrace. Look for these values during the hiring process, in order to staff your company with people that represent that mission.
Communicate clearly
Communication is the most important factor in making your employees feel valued and a part of your company. If you don’t have open lines of communications, your company culture will suffer. Employees should feel comfortable approaching others with questions or concerns.
Encourage breaks
Don’t create an atmosphere where employees are expected to work through lunches and stay late every single day. Understand that your employees have lives outside of work, and give them the opportunity to live them. Encourage employees to use their vacation time, and don’t expect them to work while on that vacation.
Foster innovation
Most of your employees have ideas about things that could make the company run better and more effectively. They probably see many places where there could be improvements from doing the work every day. Listen to their ideas. Don’t take it as a slight towards the current management; they wouldn’t offer ideas if they didn’t care about the company. Reward new and innovative ideas and let employees know their suggestions are valuable to the organization.
Engage your talent
While money is an important factor when applying to jobs, passion is more important. People are motivated by their passion to grow in their position and produce work they’re happy with. Give your employees a reason to feel passionate about their work. Offer them opportunities for growth and incentives for performance.
Also, provide your employees with ways to bond with each other, both inside and outside of the office. Having close friendships with co-workers leads to happier and more productive employees.
While developing a strong culture will take some work and won’t happen overnight, it’s crucial to the happiness of your employees and your company will benefit in the long run.