What makes an organization unique and special, separates it from other companies in the marketplace? For many organizations the answer is company culture. The culture of a company represents the identity of that company and influences every aspect of its operations, including its client-facing interactions, talent management and internal processes. Despite the growing trend towards focusing on company culture as a way to differentiate your business in the market, there are skeptics who question if it’s worth the investment or not. Read this blog to discover why company culture isn’t just a buzzword – it’s what makes your business great!
There are many definitions of company culture, but most organizations today think of it as being part of a larger organization. A corporation or firm that employs people and interacts with other firms in one way or another. One definition I like is provided by Cameron Herold on Entrepreneur: Culture is how we do things around here. That’s really what it comes down to: How you want your business to operate, how everyone should work together and interact with each other, etc.
Every company has its own culture, but there are common elements that every company shares. A company’s culture can be broken down into four components: Vision and Values, Strategy, Daily Rituals and People. Every aspect of your business should be aligned with these things. Your vision should speak to what you want to accomplish for your customers, your values define how you will treat those customers and everyone else in your organization, strategy defines how you will achieve those goals, daily rituals keep everyone focused on achieving them and people recruit others who share similar values to join you in achieving them. When all of these things align it creates an environment where people can do their best work. The key is making sure they do align.
To develop and maintain your company culture, you must focus on creating environments that foster inclusion. An employee whose ideas are listened to feels included, and an employee who feels included is more likely to be engaged in her work. Have regular meetings with employees where they can share their ideas. Make sure that everyone has plenty of opportunities to talk about their opinions and ask questions about what’s going on at work.
Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh told Fortune that his employees’ happiness was critical to success. That led to an internal employee happiness index, and various programs like free lunches and on-site massage therapists. The company hosts a festival for all of its employees, both full-time and part-time, with live music performances and hundreds of food trucks. Employees can take one paid week off at any time to go volunteer somewhere in Las Vegas. It also has a delivering happiness department whose job it is to make sure every customer gets exactly what they want from their shopping experience—even if it means delivering those items themselves. As Hsieh said: The most important thing we do as a company is hire great people who love our customers. If you don’t have those three things, you don’t have anything special.
Here’s an article on Crating an Adaptive Company Culture