4 Ways to Actually Establish a Culture that Supports Your Startup’s Growth
Launching your own business is an exciting experience for all kinds of reasons. Obviously, it is an incredible opportunity to follow your dreams, grow your wealth, and experience unparalleled success. But, more than that, it is the chance for you to take control and run a business the way that you want it to be run.
As a startup owner, you have the power to establish any kind of internal culture that you want.
If you have worked in an office or business environment before, you likely know the incredible impact the company culture can have on the employees, and ultimately, the customers. It has been proven by research that a positive culture can improve employee performance, and even make your business more profitable.
So how can you ensure that the business you are building has a positive culture that scales in the long term?
Here are four ways to do it.
- Plan for Internal Growth Accordingly
Of what should come as no shock, most aspects of your business require careful planning and strategy to be successful. Therefore, even the details of how you want your business culture to look and feel must be planned out in detail.
Start by spelling out your company values and overall vision.
- What is the ultimate goal of your company and how will it impact the lives of your customers and employees?
- What are the core values that your business will stand and operate by as it grows?
Once you have clearly defined these, consider how it will be reflected in your culture. For example, if your organization values constructive teamwork, you need to design your culture around necessary traits like good communication and operational transparency. Hosting regular group meetings, prioritizing team projects, and even using an open floor plan instead of having private offices or cubicles can help support a culture that is team-focused.
Although the initial phase of starting a business is an exciting time that seems to come with endless challenges, it will not last forever. Your startup will not always be a startup and it will (hopefully) grow into a thriving entity sooner or later. It may be difficult to truly identify your company culture when you have a small team, but as you grow, it will become far more apparent and influential.
2. Hire with the Culture’s Impact in Mind
Every person that you bring onboard will affect the culture in some way, especially when your team is relatively small during the startup phase. Be sure that your startup recruiting strategies keep the culture in mind as they search for the best fit.
While hard skills and experience are certainly important assets for a qualified candidate to possess, soft skills and personality traits can be equally important. According to LinkedIn’s report, the most important soft skills that most recruiters look out for are: strong communication abilities, organization, and ability to work well with others as a team. Other qualities such as social skills, creativity, and even a friendly personality also make the list due to their impact on the business’s overall environment.
While some of these traits may be apparent during an initial interview, it’s very difficult to get to really know a person after just a single meeting. Using an AI-assisted recruiting software tool can be incredibly helpful in this regard. These systems will create unique skill assessments that measure the candidate’s aptitude and personality traits, and some will even predict how well they will fit into your current company culture. Information like this allows your hiring team to make a much more informed and data-driven decision that can steer your culture in the right direction.
3. Invest in Day-to-Day Tools You Will Actually Use
There are plenty of software systems and tools on the market that promise to make an impact on your business culture, boost people’s productivity, and make your team far happier and more engaged in the workplace. While many of these tools may work just fine, it does not necessarily mean that your startup should invest in all or even one of them.
Now this is certainly not diminishing the importance of utilizing a proper software system. In fact, businesses that have adopted online tools reported significant improvements in team communication and the success rates of team projects. Online tools can be great, if they will be used and if they are necessary.
Before you sign up for the latest and greatest software system, take a really good, hard look at the areas of your culture that need improvement or support. Are your team members actually disengaged or are they so slammed with work that they don’t have the time to act like an engaged employee? If the latter is true, then a culture engagement tool will not to any good and a great project management system would be far more beneficial.
If your company is not going to utilize an online tool to its fullest potential, it will just turn into a waste of time and resources. Make sure that you understand the root of whatever issue you are looking to solve and search for tools accordingly.
4. Don’t Get Too Hung Up on Structure
Planning out your culture is certainly important, but remember to give your company some growing room. Steadfast plans that are unchangeable can turn into a list of rules that make no sense, and are therefore, followed quite begrudgingly.
Be sure that your culture plans are still flexible enough to change as your company grows. While having a company lunch every week may be feasible for a small team, this can get far more expensive and unreasonable for a large organization. As your business grows and changes, the culture will, too. Old strategies that worked well at one point in time may not be relevant down the road.
As your company hits new milestones, be sure to observe and reflect on the internal culture as well as the structures in place for maintaining it. Encourage open feedback from your employees and leaders and ask them which practices are creating more trouble than good. Ask for their advice and ideas, and listen to what they have to say. After all, they are the ones who are experiencing this culture every day, so they will have a different perspective that could be incredibly useful.
Conclusion
The company culture of your startup can have a major influence on the success of your business in the long run. Be sure that you have a vision in mind for the kind of work environment that you want your organization to have. From there, put the necessary structures in place to support it. Be smart about hiring decisions and additional tools, and always be willing to make changes and adjustments as priorities change.
