Startups | Company Culture Is The Difference Between Success and Failure
We’ve all heard stories of people who leave their job because they don’t feel appreciated, even though they have a great position and salary to match. What would possess someone to make such a bold move, often without even having a back up plan? The answer is simple: Company Culture. 87% of organizations cite culture and engagement as one of their top challenges (Global Human Capital Trends 2015, Deloitte, February 2015). If 87% of a ten person team feels unhappy due to company culture, guess what that leaves… one (and a third) person left, basically just you!
For a startup team the consequences can be fatal, no matter how quickly you bounce back. When it comes to company culture, prevention is better than the cure. I know that the term culture is a bit of a buzzword at the moment, but to put it simply your company culture is defined by its values and practices. When a company loses its values and practices, they begin to lose the faith of their employees, which can be almost impossible to correct. Just one negative team member is enough to create the beginnings of a toxic culture, which spreads like a cancer.
“Until I came to IBM, I probably would have told you that culture was just one among several important elements in any organization’s makeup and success — along with vision, strategy, marketing, financials, and the like… I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game, it is the game. In the end, an organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value.” — Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. IBM
Another key thing to note is that company culture helps to attract the best talent. 84% would consider leaving their current jobs if offered another role with a company that had an excellent corporate reputation. (Corporate Responsibility Magazine / Allegis Group Services Study, August 2012). Again, you’re down to one person in a ten man team…so perhaps company culture is more than just a buzzword. Why do you think so many people rave about working for companies like Facebook and Google, who boast of a low staff turnover rate? It’s all down to how they treat their employees, which I can only assume must take a lot of work considering the volume of staff across a global scale. For anyone who has had the opportunity to have a meeting in a Facebook or Google building, I’m pretty sure you had a tour around their free restaurants (not cafeteria, but actual restaurants….plural!) I’m guessing this might have something to do with why they seem to attract top talent, the kind of talent that goes on to set up their own million dollar companies. On the flip side, bad company culture will effectively deter potential talent from joining your company because unfortunately, bad news often travels quicker than good news, and people love to express their negative experiences online.
“Create the kind of workplace and company culture that will attract great talent. If you hire brilliant people, they will make work feel more like play.” — Richard Branson
Company culture starts before you even hire your first employee, you must decide what kind of environment you want to offer your team and create a rough guideline on how you achieve it. Maybe a monthly breakfast morning, or quarterly team night out, or even a weekly team meeting where everyone has a platform to be creative and share ideas. Whatever it is that works for your company, make sure you encourage each team member to be involved.
Good company culture will bring out the best in your employees, which can only be a great thing for your company. A new employee can quickly sense the culture of a company within the first hour, and don’t be surprised if disgruntled employees are not shy about subtly expressing their discontent. It might go something like this, “Be careful what you say to him, the guy before you got fired and all he did was ask for more support.” A negative working environment will automatically affect the overall productivity of your staff, which has a direct impact on a company’s success.
“Your Culture Is Your Brand” — Tony Hsieh
What many companies fail to realise is that culture is part of your brand. Customers can get a sense of your company culture just by how you interact with them, and despite living in a tech focused world, customer service is still number one! The bottom line is, if your company culture sucks, customers won’t buy into your brand, instead they will actively discourage others from dealing with you. Without loyal customers singing your praises you have no profit, and let’s face it, without any profit you have no company!
The bottom line is company culture is very simple: treat your employees with respect, go out of your way to make it clear that you value their efforts, don’t be shy in praising them by telling them how much you appreciate their work and I assure you the rewards will be ten fold. Not enough can be said for working in a company where everyone is happy, collaborates and genuinely enjoys their job. And remember, company culture doesn’t rest solely on the shoulders of the CEO, it’s something that everyone can help to improve. Maybe the CEO is overwhelmed with matters that the team is not privy to, so use your initiative and perhaps you can be the one to make a change that might just be the difference between success or failure.
