Company culture can be difficult to define, and yet, it is important to so many aspects of an organization. Company culture defines everything that is normal, valued, expected and observable within an organization. This “everything” can include company policies and procedures, vision and goals, work environment, leadership, teamwork, employee interactions, events, training and development, etc. Ultimately, company culture is the personality of your organization, and it impacts your employees, teams, and customers.
Company culture is created and reinforced through the repetitive and normalized actions and behaviors of an organization. Leadership of an organization typically sets the direction for company culture and allows/reinforces behavior by employees at all levels. Although it is nice to have documentation to support initiatives that impact culture, it is important to remember that culture is not created through policies and procedures. Additionally, company culture is developed and reinforced over time by what is proven to be regularly accepted and expected behaviors in the company.
A focus on creating and maintaining a good company culture can result in some very positive outcomes that include increases in:
Due to the increase of employees working remotely or having to social distance in the workplace, many organizations are struggling with maintaining the company culture they have worked so hard to develop. Recent organizational changes have been difficult for existing employees and especially difficult for new employees within the organization. Despite the difficulties over the last year, progress is being made with the pandemic. It could be sooner than we think that things will start to get back to normal. Therefore, now is a great time for companies to focus on developing or reinventing themselves and their company culture.
Business owners should take this time to carefully rethink and refine some of the larger aspects of their organization. Big picture topics like company mission, vision and values should be assessed and restated to members of the organization to create common direction amongst the staff. Big picture topics, like how the organization is going to bring everyone together to achieve these goals, are part of creating a positive company culture.
When looking at all aspects of the company, many of which revolve around HR, it is always important to have the big picture of company culture in mind. When you are making changes to responsibilities such as recruiting, onboarding, training, etc., some questions that should be in the front of your mind are, “How does this impact our culture?” and “How does it help to achieve our organizational goals?”
In future publications we will discuss HR responsibilities such as recruiting, on-boarding, training, employee development, and many other topics. We will address how these activities can impact and drive company culture.
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