Before You Create Your Company’s Culture, Read This First

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The most successful companies have clear values and principles. They have an explicit identity in which they make all decisions upon. They have processes, procedures and practices in place to ensure that they are consistently fostering their corporate cultures. Organizations with strong cultures, especially those that include diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts, typically perform better, have better employee retention and engagement, and higher profits.

If you could get all the people in an organization rowing in the same direction, you could dominate any industry, in any market, against any competition, at any time.
― Patrick Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable

What is company culture?

The culture of an organization comes from the shared values and behaviors of the employees as well as the decisions they make, the way they manage their teams and how they handle business transactions. The purpose of a company’s culture is to ensure that everyone works together to support the mission, values, goals, attitudes and practices. Corporate culture can be intentionally developed or just something that is practiced company-wide. Workplace culture is reflected in a company’s hiring decisions, customer satisfaction, working environment, dress code, benefits, and all other areas of their operations.

Why is company culture important?

Defining a company’s mission, culture and values gives the employees purpose. It sets up a productive, positive environment and fosters higher performance. The kind of culture that is promoted in an organization influences everything from financial growth to innovation. When employees understand the values that drive decisions and are comfortable that everyone in the organization from C-level executives to entry-level workers are working towards the same goal they typically perform better.

Many companies with a strong culture see benefits such as:

• Increased employee retention
• Higher employee morale
• Increased profits and revenues
• Better brand reputation
• Increased productivity
• Higher quality products and services
• Excellent employee engagement
• Exceptional leadership
• Better innovation and responsiveness to change
• Improved decision-making
• Top-notch talent

What does a successful company culture look like?

A thriving company culture is one that has positive energy. The employees are happy and doing their best work. They want to stay with the organization and are able to improve themselves and achieve their goals while helping their company and co-workers achieve their goals. All employees are valued regardless of their job titles or duties. They feel welcomed, included, engaged and appreciated. The positive employee morale results in high productivity and excellence in all areas of the business. There is improved innovation as workers feel better about improving the company and want to see it successful. The team is diverse, equitable and feels included. It is a place that employees look forward to going to everyday.

Because the company’s foundation is built upon underlying values, goals and a mission, decisions are make more easily. The team feels unified and celebrates successes. They encourage and help one another. Leaders live by the values which allows employees to trust the leaders and organization. The employees are recognized for their contributions and hard work. They are happy working for an organization where people are positive, cooperative, and aiming toward the same goals.

What are some core values that can help to shape corporate culture?

Choosing core values for an organization is important and a very personal decision. Whenever possible, establish them as a team so that everyone feels included and is on the same page. Together decide which values are most important and why. If you already have a mission statement, use that to help create the values. The values should support the mission. If there isn’t a mission statement, creating one is an important first step in establishing a strong company culture.

Examples of corporate core values include:

• Integrity
• Inclusive
• Passion
• Accountability
• Honesty
• Ownership
• Constant Improvement
• Quality
• Innovation
• Transparency
• Diversity
• Simplicity
• Performance
• Exceptional
• Customer Commitment
• Teamwork
• Empathy
• Respect
• Responsibility
• Peace
• Justice
• Leadership
• Collaboration
• Supporting Sustainability
• Building Communities
• Making an Impact
• Courageous
• Trust
• Humility
• Equitable

How do you create a top-notch company culture?

The key to success is to create a culture that is based on shared beliefs supported by company strategy and organizational structure. When an organization has succeeded in building and fostering a healthy culture, employees tend to know how leadership wants them to respond to situations, believe that the expected response is the right one, and are confident that they will be acknowledged for demonstrating the company’s values. Improving or creating a healthy corporate culture requires taking action and involves all departments and leaders. It is essential that the leadership team believes in the values and acts as a strong role model.

The first step to creating or improving a corporate culture entails assessing where your company is at. Identify culture traits of the organization and team members. Look at as much internal data as you can. Send out surveys. Complete a full review. If you don’t have a defined culture are you noticing any trends? If your culture is defined, how is it defined? What improvements can be made? Do employees tend to be more productive when they are acknowledged and shown appreciation? Is there a lack of diversity? Does everyone feel included? Are processes fair and equitable? How do people communicate with one another?

Once you have a baseline of where you’re at, the next step is to choose or refine values based on the company’s mission with input from founders, leaders and all team members. Ask important questions such as:

• Which behaviors does the organization value over making a sale?
• When is it okay to put the needs of the team above the customer’s needs?
• What is important to each department or individual?

Brainstorm about what is important to the company and the team. Once you have a list, which will probably initially be quite long, start to narrow it down. Combine similar values to help pair it down. Get creative with your wording. Once you have a chosen a set of values, evaluate them. Make sure they encompass the most important aspects of the company.

When everyone is excited about the new company values, it’s time to develop processes and practices so that the culture can be fostered. It is especially important that leaders are on board and that your human resources (HR), diversity, and people operations teams are included.

The human resources and diversity teams are important in ensuring that the culture will thrive. HR is responsible for creating and overseeing hiring practices, onboarding programs, rewards and recognition as well as performance management programs that are aligned with the core values and culture. DEI is responsible for ensuring a diverse, inclusive and equitable work environment which supports, strengthens and reaffirms the culture.

The key to changing or refining culture and values is that the leaders are supportive of them. Change comes from the top down. The leadership and management teams need to act as role models for the organization. They need to give reminders and show the team that they believe in and support the company’s mission, values and overarching culture.

Having and promoting frequent, open communication helps set the stage for an amazing culture. Frequently reiterate the culture and values. Discuss it in every meeting. Every decision should be based on the mission, values and culture. When employees see them in action they will understand that the stated culture is more than just words and empty promises. They see it lived and promoted in the organization on every level.

Use metrics to assess your efforts and make improvements as needed. Track data as much as you can. Gather hiring data, promotions, employee engagement, HR and talent acquisition, and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Send out anonymous surveys so that employees feel comfortable being honest. Use this data to improve or refine processes.

Things to keep in mind.

Intentional development of company culture is done to encourage employees to work well together, do great work and to make customers happy. Hiring and retaining employees who support your mission and values is important, however, don’t get caught in the “culture fits only” practice as that can go against your DEI measures and lead to discrimination. When hiring, instead of assessing candidates by trying to determine if they’ll fit into a box or how similar they are to those on the team, ask yourself what they can add to the culture. Embrace diversity. Include and be aware of racism, microaggressions, neurodiversity, invisible disabilities and unconscious bias.

Never confuse company culture with hiring only for “culture fit.” Having a stated culture ensures everyone in on the same page working collaboratively towards the same goal. But don’t discriminate people from different backgrounds, different ethnicities or races, different thinking and learning styles. Having a diverse team also leads to higher company performance and increased profits so don’t get stuck judging people because they are different. As long as they are supportive of the goals, their diverse experiences and processes will lead to a more successful organization.

Creating an intentional corporate culture leads to a happier, more productive team as well as higher revenues and profits. The culture of a company affects nearly every area of business and is critical to the long-term success of the organization. Investing the time and effort to build the foundation of your company is well worth it and is very likely to result in happier employees, more loyal customers, higher financial rewards and overall company success.