Company Culture: More Important Than You Think

The How and Why of Company Culture

The values of a positive company culture are plentiful and easy to see! Happy employees are more engaged, meet goals, and stick around instead of finding work elsewhere. This translates not only into monetary growth for the company as a whole, but brand loyalty and reputation as well.

Culture influences every level of a company, from new hires to top level leadership. In a recent study, 77% of adults said they consider company culture before applying for a job, with over 50% saying culture is more important than salary.

So why do so many companies neglect culture, or just outright fail at changing it?

The underlying reason is usually a lack of understanding. Some think it’s as simple as updating a slogan or mission statement. They don’t understand the importance of setting measurable goals, or why leading by example is required for a successful change. When leadership fails to follow through or properly define a culture, it’s bound to fail.

The team at Know Your Talents has decades of experience helping companies successfully craft and implement company culture. We’d like to pass on a few articles we feel do a great job of outlining tips for successfully changing company culture.

Business News Daily recently released their article “ How to Improve Your Company Culture ” a nice little write up outlining the process of cultural change. Here’s a few tips from the article:

1. Demonstrate to employees that their involvement is critical. Invite employees to share their thoughts both during company culture discussions and during day-to-day operations.
2. Make sure management’s actions don’t clash with stated values. If the founder, CEO or other executives are not “walking the walk,” employees will not be inspired to do so either.
3. Align everything (department, initiatives, processes, etc.) to support company culture, and remind employees that they are invited to contribute to that culture through collaboration and innovation.
4. Conduct periodic (preferably annual) culture audits. Don’t wait until something significant happens (e.g., top employees quit) to evaluate if your efforts are working.

In another article, Bonusly offers “ 10 Dead Simple Ways to Improve Company Culture ”:

1. Embrace Transparency
2. Recognize and Reward Valuable Contributions
3. Cultivate Strong Coworker Relationships
4. Embrace and Inspire Employee Autonomy
5. Practice Flexibility
6. Communicate Purpose and Passion
7. Promote a Team Atmosphere
8. Give and Solicit Regular Feedback
9. Stay True to Your Core Values
10. Give Culture Building The Effort It Deserves

Both articles above do a great job outlining the basics of cultural change. Know Your Talents builds from this foundation, leveraging the behavioral traits of team members to supercharge the process. Our proven method crafts a culture where every team member feels respected, fulfilled, and valued.

The results speak for themselves. We’ve helped reduce turnover by 50%, increased retention rates and candidate pools, lowered recruiting costs, and grew sales $50M in a single quarter.

We’d love to help your company create the ideal culture. Get started today!