In our previous posts, we have made a strong case for making your company’s culture a top management priority.
If you need any further convincing, it might be worth reading this article in Fortune. This discussion points out what many modern managers of successful companies believe is an indisputable fact.
They repeatedly state that a great culture is, in fact, one of the most effective competitive weapons in today’s marketplace.
Investing on a Limited Budget
If you simply read about all the perks provided to employees of some of the companies in Silicon Valley and the Bay Area, you might think creating and maintaining a great culture is a costly effort.
In fact, many of those companies are in a competitive spiral for good team members, and offer everything from chef-prepared meals to laundry centers and free fitness memberships. These are only a few of the perks these workers are offered, and more are added all the time.
However, just as compensation is only part of the culture picture, expensive perks are not necessary to develop the kind of working environment your employees will love. In fact, as we’ve noted, making the right investments will produce more than they cost. When you improve productivity and lower turnover rates, you benefit in multiple ways.
Luke Lewis, a vice president at FleishmanHillard, notes, “These organizations know that good culture has value beyond just employee satisfaction — it helps drive bottom line results.” If this is the case, and you want to get started, understand you have to start with spending some intellectual capital, not so much your hard dollars. That means involving your management and key employees in a careful, insightful, and sincere effort to assess your current corporate culture. That process will help you determine where your current situation falls short and where you can add some real value and excitement.
Develop the Plan and Implement It Diligently
Once you and your team have determined the culture you desire for your organization, develop a planned and methodical way to work towards that objective. As with all things of value, this process takes time.
For example, as we discuss in the next post, you will have one of your biggest impacts on long-term culture through your hiring processes.
Here are a few ways to begin the process of moving to the culture you want with a minimal investment of dollars:
- Lunch and learns. You can’t create an enviable culture by sending emails and corporate memos. Managers and team members will benefit most from regular, informal meetings with sandwiches and pizza during the workday.
- A little bit of silliness is serious business. Even in the most professional environments, people need a little bit of silliness and fun. Break down the barriers to having the culture you desire with planned special days, events, and activities that let everyone blow off steam and see their co-workers as people with whom they enjoy working. You can find cheap stuff with different themes at several stores, such as Oriental Trading and Dollar Tree.
When it comes to creating a productive environment, assume the best from your people. You can fulfill this assumption by good hiring, but you also want to reinforce that expectation on a day-to-day basis.
A great post from Fast Company makes a very important point: “Create rules for the “95%.” Instead of creating restrictions and challenges to your workplace due to the disappointing 5%, weed them out by better hiring and effective management processes.
Great cultures are never an accident, but neither can you buy them by simply spending money on perks. Get the results you want by working on the details of your culture on a daily basis.
No clue how to create a winning culture? Download Part 1 of our free Company Culture eBook series, Creating A Culture That Matters: Laying The Foundation For A Great Business Culture.
