What process can the organization use to ensure that it maintains its culture?
Have you ever been a part of a company culture that meshes perfectly with your values and personality? Show If you have, then you know that it can be an empowering and motivating experience. Strong company cultures help keep employees engaged, committed, and invested in the organization's future. 66% of job seekers consider a company's culture and values as the most important factor when exploring career opportunities. That statistic should be a head-turner for any organization that doesn't have a clear vision for its company culture and a process to nurture it. Of course, maintaining company culture can be especially difficult in 2020 with the pivot to remote work. In this article, we'll walk you through some tips for how to build and maintain a strong company culture and values virtually. But first, let's take a step back. What is company culture?Company culture is the shared values, attributes, behaviors, and characteristics that an organization and the people within hold and prioritize. It's a shared ethos within an organization that dictates the way that employees feel about the work that they do, the values they believe in, and their vision for the company's future. The best company cultures are evident every day in the way employees interact with each other and the decision they make both as individuals and for the company's collective good. It can be difficult to define company culture, as it's an abstract term that touches virtually every corner of an organization, including:
How an organization structures its leadership style, specifically, can have a significant impact on a company's culture. For example, hierarchical leadership styles will create a more formal culture where expectations and job descriptions are set and somewhat rigid. On the other hand, team-based cultures decentralize leadership and encourage employees to take on new roles and responsibilities as needed to complete a task or project. The culture you choose and nurture at your organization will be unique to you. It must fit your organization's needs and structure, while also being reflective of the people you hire. Now that we've defined company culture let's discuss why it's important. Why is company culture important?Company culture impacts virtually every aspect of your business: from recruitment to performance to retention. As mentioned at the start of this article, job seekers prioritize company culture very highly when considering a new job. There's a reason for this. People want to work for a company that's aligned with their goals and values. If they don't, then it's likely that they'll look elsewhere. This concept is at the core of why company culture is so important. It influences outcomes from the top to the bottom of an organization and can dramatically affect an organization's long-term success. Strong company cultures make people feel like they can move mountains. Weak ones make people question why they should even try. When organizations take the time to communicate their values and nurture a distinct company culture, some pretty amazing things happen, including:
Engagement, satisfaction, and retention are the three best byproducts of strong company culture. And the company culture statistics prove that point:
When you consider what company culture is, those stats make a lot of sense. Employees spend a lot of their lives at work and away from their families. They want to work in a job or for a company that offers more than just a paycheck if they have the option. As a result, most employees will actively seek out companies whose culture aligns with their own life priorities. But how does one go about building a strong company culture? We'll dig into that in the next two sections. While it's clear that strong company culture and values are important for long term success, it's often less clear for business owners how to actually go about building one. That's because company culture is somewhat abstract. A large part of it is built organically through specific decisions that are made over time, and it can sometimes morph into a culture that the business owner didn't envision in the first place. The fluidity of company culture is one reason why it's so important for business owners and managers to have an active hand in helping to create it. Employees and teams will create their own cultures whether you like it or not, but there are steps you can take to ensure that this organic growth is channeled toward the values and goals that are important to strategic success. Here are some techniques that business owners can use to help build a strong company culture:
Of course, the tips outlined above are great for building a company culture during normal times. Unfortunately, 2020 is far from normal time. Many people are working virtually or not at all. This puts a lot of strain on companies and makes it difficult to maintain the cultures that employees have become accustomed to. Additional reading: 8 steps to implementing culture change in the workplace In the next section, we'll outline some ways that you can maintain your company culture in a remote work world. Maintaining your company culture virtuallyThe biggest challenge with virtual work is the lack of physical communication between co-workers. Everything has to be done either through email, chat, or video conferencing. This creates a number of challenges, including:
As mentioned earlier, clear communication, a shared commitment to a common goal, and strong relationships are all the drivers behind a strong company culture. Working virtually has largely disrupted that, meaning companies need to find alternative ways to foster and maintain their cultures. Luckily, this disruption is happening during a time when there is no lack of virtual communication tools to keep organizations connected and rowing in the same direction. Now is the time to focus on finding new and innovative ways to communicate with your teams. If you're struggling to maintain your best company culture virtually, then try some of these tips:
As challenging as this year has been for many organizations and employees around the world, there has never been a better time to pivot to virtual working. The tools and technology are in place to make transitioning to a remote company culture easier and more sustainable. When in doubt, consider reaching out to experts on how to create or improve company culture. This can be done through culture workshops or consultations. If there's one thing to take away from this article, communication is the key to success in building the best company culture. Define your values and goals as an organization. Communicate them regularly so that everyone in the organization knows they exist and buys into the collective effort. What processes in an organization affect culture?The attitudes, mentalities, interests, perception and even the thought process of the employees affect the organization culture. Example - Organizations which hire individuals from army or defence background tend to follow a strict culture where all the employees abide by the set guidelines and policies.
What are the methods to ensure that employees learn the organizational culture?Organize activities that will bring your employees together and give them a better grasp of your company's brand and culture through bonding and connection. Team building is also a great way for the members of your organization to learn about each other, like how they communicate, plan, and solve problems.
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