Batman, The Caped Crusader, has vowed his entire life to protect the city of Gotham. Gotham has seen the likes of disgusting criminals like The Joker, The Riddler, Two-Face, Penguin, and many more! Once there is trouble in the city of Gotham, Batman receives the signal to help rid the city of the filth within.
You aren’t all that different from Batman.
You may not have the badass suit, armor, and gadgets like he does, but like Batman, you protect your business from the same filth that covers Gotham.
We want to focus on one particular part of business, that we believe is a business’ most valuable asset; company culture.
Your company culture is what makes your business different from your competition. It’s what motivates your employees to run through walls, stay long hours, work when they aren’t supposed to, and do whatever they can to help your business succeed. A good company culture can make an average company, a GREAT company!
Unfortunately, company culture is not something that is normally focussed on in small business’. Most big businesses have their company culture on lock, but this is where you need to change your focus.
THINK BIG!
You shouldn’t wait till the day you are big to finally realize how important culture is. Start now! Like right now! That doesn’t mean that you need to rewrite your employee handbook, but honestly you might want to blow the dust off that thing. So let’s give you two core takeaways that you can start today that doesn’t require that much work or effort on your part.
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TRAINING
Company culture starts the minute a new employee walks into the doors of your business.
Your employee handbook and office, should promote the type of company you are. As your employee’s read your handbook, you should not only be discussing the job that they are hired for, but also how to better the organization. During training it’s suggested to involve some of the other core team members that your new hire will be working with. This way they can get the backing of one of your leads, but also become an advocate to the “New Guy/Girl”.
One of the days of training should also include how important the customer experience is within your company. The customer experience is EVERYTHING for your business. Your company needs to focus on bettering your bottom line, and your employee needs to know how to do just that! Teach, train, and lead the cavalry to success!
SPECIAL EVENTS
Once the training is complete, it’s time to unwind a prove that you can work, get stuff done, and also have fun! Camaraderie is key.
If the rest of the team isn’t fun and friendly the company culture will suffer greatly. In order to protect your culture, we suggest a few ways to increase employee morale, better your company culture, and promote creativity!
Color Time
Childish? Maybe. If you work in a creative environment, losing your creative mojo from time to time isn’t something out of the ordinary. Find ways to help expand the minds of your crew, promote interaction and team work. Let the flow of natural conversations stem from the simple task of coloring.
Day Trips
Treat your team to a paid day off. Having a company happy hour, softball game, or video game/movie night will win the hearts of your employees and help build relationships within your organization.
This all sounds fun, but at the end of the day, Batman needs to make sure Gotham is in order. These suggestions all sound fun but you have to make sure the customer is ALWAYS the center of your attention. Stay focused at the tasks at hand, keep your mission front of mind at ALL TIMES.
Business shouldn’t always be about keeping your head down and focused on the job. Work life balance is important, don’t sweat the small stuff. Have fun while you’re building your empire!
Five Steps to Develop a Desirable Company Culture
Could your company’s culture stand to be improved? Is it stuck in the past, or has it become less desirable over the years? Do you have a complete understanding of what your employees feel should be part of the company’s value system to best help them to succeed? Most organizations’ cultures are in a constant state of evolution. Make sure yours is moving in the right direction by checking out the five steps listed below.
Plan
It’s important for all of a company’s executives to be on the same page, with decision makers from each department and/or office included in the development of the company culture plan. Planning efforts should focus on defining the company mission statement and values, deciding on appropriate communication tools and methods, establishing ways to promote company culture and developing interview and hiring models that will be implemented across the company to support the values arrived at.
Hire
Great culture starts with an organization’s recruitment and hiring efforts. A company can only have the culture it desires if it hires people that share its beliefs and are most successful when working in the environment the company promotes. During the interviewing process, managers should have a clear understanding of desired personality types, professional traits, experience and work style, and base a large portion of their hiring decisions on whether or not the individual is a cultural fit.
Demonstrate
Of course, management needs to enforce specific rules related to company culture, but, more importantly, management needs to lead by example and demonstrate, through their own words and actions, what is expected of their employees. When the leaders don’t exude the right behaviors, it’s hard for employees to feel motivated to stand behind the company’s decisions.
Engage
Creating a positive company culture takes a whole team. Surveying employees, creating culture committees and openly communicating with team members allows management to get a better understanding of how the culture is positively or negatively effecting the employees and what changes need to be made to provide a more conducive environment. Engaging employees in these decisions allows them to feel a sense of ownership over the culture, and provides management with the help it needs to make the company a preferred place to work.
Balance
Company culture is not a “one-size-fits-all” concept. Each organization has to develop the type of culture that makes sense for its line of work. Finding the right balance between the desired company culture and running a productive business takes time and consistent reevaluation.
