If you have a brand new startup or website under your belt, it makes sense if your mind has focused primarily on how to build your brand, further your reach, and make sales. However, how much thought have you put into how you’re going to create a positive company culture within your startup? Too often, this aspect of business is overlooked despite the fact that it’s so important.
Business owners are always concentrated on growing their email list and improving their lead generation, all tactics that earn them money. However, they don’t consider that by investing in cultivating positive company culture, they’d be able to save money by retaining employees who remain happy and feel fulfilled in their day-to-day work lives.
Let’s look at a few ways you can build a company culture your team is proud to be part of.
Define your values
Do you know the values your business runs on? If not, it’ll be difficult to define what you want your company culture to look like and even harder for your team to follow suit. If you don’t have answers to the most basic questions about your brand, you’ll have a hard time building a culture around your business that you’re proud of.
Why does your company exist? What does it stand for and what are its values? Does it have a mission statement? What’s the plan for its future? If you have yet to answer these questions, that’s a sign you have yet to build a solid foundation for a consistently positive company culture.
Your best bet is to define your culture from the very beginning. Of course it’s nice to lay out the details about company outings, office snacks, and casual Fridays, but without assessing what you want the bigger picture to look like, it’ll be even harder to make that vision a reality.
Listen to employee feedback
Imagine working in an office where your thoughts, opinions, and concerns go unlistened to. It would make anyone feel like their stance doesn’t matter and is the quickest way to bring negativity into the workplace.
It’s important to establish an open line of communication the second an employee is hired. It should be a mandatory practice that, during onboarding, employees are aware that they’re free to speak up and offer feedback to managers for a smoother, more laidback place to work. No one wants to come into work every day dreading their lives because they feel like their colleagues and bosses don’t care about what they have to say, so listen to your team when they have something to say and you could see a boost in your business growth.
Hire the right team
How elaborate is the hiring process in your company? How involved are you in the process? Do you trust your recruiters and the rest of your hiring team to hire the right people for your business? If not, this could be a reason you struggle to cultivate a positive culture within your company.
Unfortunately, too many companies out there don’t take their time to hire employees best suited for their business’ vision and goals. They figure as long as they have a long list of experience and specific technical skills, they must be a good fit. However, they don’t put enough effort into getting to know their candidates’ behaviors, attitudes, and mindsets, and this ends up doing more harm than good.
To have a culture in your company you’re proud of, you need to start by hiring the right people for your team. Think about the attitudes you’d like to be surrounded by and that suit your business’ values. It’s probably wise not to hire someone who complained a lot during the interview or only saw things in a negative light. Rather, pay attention to those who keep a positive, healthy attitude and see the glass half full.
Wrapping up
Cultivating a company culture that you’re proud of is something that should be cultivated from the very beginning, even before onboarding employees. This gives you a clear idea of who you want on your team so that, moving forward, you see the culture within your business that you always envisioned. It’s essential to take employee feedback seriously and show your team that their opinions and feelings about work life matter. It’s also important to take your time with the hiring process to ensure you’re bringing people into your company you’re proud to have there. How will you create a positive company culture?