November 14, 2013 | 5 min read
Your Path to Cultivating Attractive Company Culture

Tandym Group

It’s widely accepted amongst leaders that company culture is important. We’ve written at length about this in the past—having a unique and attractive company identity is important to many potential employees, and in many cases, can be the make or break point for a lot of candidates. It’s important not only for hiring great employees, but for keeping employee satisfaction and morale up. But how do you develop, and portray, that culture?

If you feel that there is a challenge getting in the way of your efforts toward a more appealing and unifying company culture, or that your current company culture is doing you a disservice, these next steps can help steer you in the right direction:

Step One: Determine your goals and allow for enough flexibility to let them happen. The way your business is structured may prevent the changes you have in mind, so try to be open-minded enough to make some changes.

Step Two: Lead by example. Let’s say you want to build better communication in your office, starting with face-to-face contact in place of impersonal emails. The first step would be to approach everyone in this manner and follow that guideline, rather than shoot out an email informing them of the change. If you want your employees to participate in more firm-wide events, attend them yourself to encourage others to do the same. Likewise, hire leaders who embody your company culture and will strive to follow it; culture trickles down from the top.

Step Three: Consider giving back. Studies show that employees, especially millennials, value workplaces that give them opportunities to get involved in the community. If possible, have the company match employee donations or encourage the company to participate in community events as a whole.

Step Four: Recognize hard work and reward it. This is a proactive step that will help shape and nurture not only your company, but your employees. Something as simple as hosing a celebratory happy hour after a firm-wide achievement or celebrating a star employee’s anniversary can go a long way in boosting office morale and casting your company in a positive light.

Step Five: Give your employees a voice.  As we’ve suggested before in our post on Attracting and Retaining Top Talent, one of the best ways to do this is to provide a comment box or an anonymous online submission form. That way, you can be aware of everyone’s wants and needs, and they can feel secure and comfortable voicing their opinions.

Step Six: Start, and carry out, traditions. Something as simple as a small in-office happy hour after quarterly meetings or an annual holiday celebration can give employees something to look forward to. In addition, keeping these traditions strong even during tough times helps show what’s important to your firm: employee satisfaction and engagement.

Creating an attractive identity for your business takes more than determining that things will change going forward: it takes creativity, initiative, drive, and a little flexibility. If you allow for changes and follow these steps, you should find yourself with not only improved employee satisfaction, but an identifiable company culture that candidates will want to work for.

 

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