Table of Contents
Building a company culture that is truly great can be tricky. It needs to have some solid foundations, but also a certain amount of flexibility in case the direction changes. Culture doesn’t need to be complicated, and there’s no one way it should go. These 27 insights will help you create an amazing company culture for your team today!
Because employees spend so much of their time with their coworkers and management, the cultural dynamics of a firm are critical to its success. For better or worse, corporate culture can rapidly take root and have a significant impact on your brand, so understanding how to cultivate a healthy culture is critical.
There are techniques and instruments you may use to influence your corporate culture, whether it is well-established or still forming. Expert advice on how to develop and strengthen your corporate culture was collected from professionals.
Here are the top 27 professional corporate culture concepts.
1. Document regular work processes & procedures.
Søren Pommer, Co-founder & CEO, Gluu.biz
Simple, recurrent chores like how to charge certain client groups, onboard new workers, and recruit contractors may cause team members to dispute. Such arguments deplete energy and often result in a bad society. The answer is to have the next person who completes a routine job document their procedure and make it available to everyone. Others may then repurpose it and add their own thoughts and observations. Doing this job by the task can help your team build a consistent working style that will save you time, aggravation, and even conflict. It takes some perseverance and consistency, but the payback in terms of not having to reinvent the wheel is significant.
2. Define a mission that is people-centered rather than profit-driven.
OnTheClock Founder Dean Mathews
Building a firm culture entails assembling a group of individuals who share the same goal, passion, and set of values. The culture must be purposefully defined [and followed] by the leaders, or it will be created by someone else. When it comes to building a culture, the most crucial factor is your people. Above everything else, even income and development, your employees should be appreciated.
A clearly defined, the non-profit purpose must be formed and conveyed to everyone, and if the cause is real, the money will follow. Passion is infectious, and it must originate at the top. If the leaders are enthusiastic about the mission, the whole team will be enthusiastic as well.
3. Strengthen the existing culture.
Gnatta’s Head of Marketing, Rob Mead
Rather than the blue-sky ideas you could have concocted in a strategy session, your actual culture defines who you are and what you stand for. If your company is based on a foundation of realistic, responsible decision-makers, the objective of becoming an irreverent disruptor with a Chief Fun Officer and a ball pit in the workplace may not be the greatest approach. Rather than creating your culture based on a misunderstanding of what you want, construct and grow your culture based on who you are. It’s gotten you this far, and every new route you take without taking into account your current culture risks causing division.
4. Appoint someone to be the “cultural whip.”
William Vanderbloemen, Founder & CEO, Vanderbloemen Search Group
Because I feel that culture is so vital in the workplace, I have designated a team member as our Culture Whip. She works on our Client Relations Team, but she devotes a third of her time to injecting our culture across the organization. She leads our Culture Team, which consists of a cultural ambassador from each department in the organization. They meet on a regular basis to coordinate our monthly cultural activities on our culture calendar, all of which are linked to our nine business principles. She also sends out a weekly email with a motivational article or suggestion related to one of our nine business principles. It’s been a game-changer for our little firm to have someone who is responsible for instilling culture into every aspect of our organization.
5. Put together a cultural guide.
Jon Saxton, PHOS Creative’s Inbound Marketing Executive
We have a 29-page Culture Handbook in addition to our usual employee handbook. It delves into each of our fundamental principles in-depth, describing what they represent and how they apply to how we engage with customers and one another. When new team member joins, they are given a copy of the Culture Handbook, which is updated on a regular basis. Every two weeks, one of our team’s leaders will go even further, dissecting a single area and examining how it manifests itself in the workplace, in communication, and elsewhere, frequently using current instances.
6. Make compassion an integral part of your company’s culture.
Leah Weiss, Ph.D., Speaker, Author & Lecturer, Leah Weiss PhD
Compassion should be ingrained in your company culture from the outset, not as an afterthought. To do so, start by searching for certain soft qualities in leadership, such as intellectual humility, the capacity to accept errors, and problem-solving. Then, develop a leadership program based on self-compassion (how to be kind to yourself), group compassion (how to be sympathetic to other leaders), and employee compassion. These procedures are necessary for growing healthy cultures, and they are also necessary for establishing a favorable HR culture.
7. Recognize how the design of your workplace space affects your company’s culture.
Paladino and Company Vice President Rachel Sowards
In the long run, the office atmosphere and building have an impact on business culture. People’s physical surroundings have a big influence on how they interact and how they engage with their job.
Here are three easy ways to enhance your company’s culture by improving the physical work environment:
- Remove any impediments to cooperation, such as walls or doors.
- Allow for the finest views, sunshine, and fresh air in collaboration areas.
- Utilize underutilized areas such as hallways, crossroads, lobbies, and break rooms by introducing laptop-friendly furniture as well as huge monitors, whiteboards, and collaboration tools.
8. Encourage staff to partake in an “office hobby.”
Steven Benson, Founder & CEO, Badger Maps
At Badger Maps, all of our offices share the same ‘office hobby.’ Everyone in the Badger offices has a Foosball table, which they love playing – frequently competitively. It’s really beneficial when your team has the same sport or pastime. It assists everyone in getting to know one another.
9. Recognize and reward workers that assist others.
Insight Business Works’ President, Christine M. Allen, Ph.D.
Set up a culture that encourages employees for assisting others, even on different teams, to promote a pleasant and ethical culture. Even simple acts of kindness or positivity (such as bringing in food for the team, assisting someone with carrying items out to their vehicle, or lending someone an umbrella when it rains) should be recognized and acknowledged.
Set up a system for workers to recognize and reward other employees who are nice and kind, and offer that employee a modest token of appreciation (e.g. put their name on the company bulletin board, or buy them a free cup of coffee or a snack). This fosters a healthy culture in which shared principles of care are shown through deeds rather than words.
10. Survey your employees on a regular basis.
Kerry Wekelo, Managing Director of Human Resources & Operations, Actualize Consulting
You must inject culture into all elements of your business, from your people to your programs, to establish a vibrant organizational culture. Conducting brief staff surveys on a regular basis throughout the year is a simple approach to accomplish this. Employees that can add their own ideas to the team will be more satisfied with the outcomes of modifications or new projects. The most crucial thing to keep in mind is that you should constantly explain what you will and will not do.
11. Act as a stepping stone for future job advancement.
Meathead Movers’ CEO, Aaron Steed
Meathead Movers is fast expanding and creating an “encouraged turnover” work atmosphere. Meathead Movers, unlike many other professions, fosters employee turnover by serving as a stepping stone to the dream occupations of its student athletees. The company’s purpose is to provide its employees with the skills and guidance they need to achieve their life goals.
12. Allow individuals to accept responsibility for their actions.
Midcourse Advisors’ Managing Partner, Andy Goldstrom
While it is critical to establish standards and hold employees responsible, they also need space to do their duties. If you want someone to go from point A to point B, provide them with the tools they need to complete the task. Tell them what the deadline is and that you expect them to meet it, but don’t tell them how to travel from point A to point B. Allow someone to establish the strategy to support a project if you want them to own it.
13. Throw a vision board party at work.
Business Advocates PRO, Inc. owner Dionna A. Appling, BA, M.S.M.
This exercise enables your workers to depict their vision of an ideal workplace, team, or corporate culture. Close the workplace a couple of hours early and give your staff the resources they need to make their boards. The idea is to not approach this as just an activity or gathering, but rather to pay attention to and record what your colleagues actually want while at work.
This will enable you to better connect your leadership and employee engagement methods with their requirements, resulting in a corporate culture that people embrace. After that, you may put the finished vision boards throughout the workplace as a visual reminder of what you and your team are striving towards!
14. Encourage your staff to participate in voluntary work.
Ann Marie Dori, Marketing & Outreach Coordinator, SOLitude Lake Management
The company’s leadership believes it is critical to not just be good environmental stewards, but also to be good stewards of our local communities. Volunteers are acknowledged quarterly and rewarded with gift cards, incentives, and company-matched gifts to charity of their choosing for their philanthropic hours. I volunteer once a week at the local SPCA and organize monthly community cleanups — and I get paid for it! It’s a distinct feature of our culture that promotes not just collaboration and leadership, but also kindness and compassion.
15. Make your company a family-friendly environment.
Joy Gendusa, Founder & CEO, PostcardMania
PostcardMania is situated in Florida, where hurricane season is one of the most important seasons. In the unfortunate event that a tropical storm or hurricane threatens our coasts, local schools will be forced to shut down on short notice. I’m referring to the previous day! During hurricane season, we have babysitters on standby at headquarters who transform PostcardMania’s first floor and common spaces into a child zone. They not only oversee the children, but they also play games with them, show them the newest Disney film on our large projector, give them something kid-friendly from our organic café, and so on.
It’s a great day for the kids, and if mommy and daddy employees don’t want to work from home, they don’t have to burn up a vacation day or pay for last-minute arrangements the night before. They may simply bring their children to work and be certain that they will be secure (and completely engaged!) while remaining productive for the day.
16. Allow staff to work from home whenever possible.
Jacqui Liberman, CEO & Founder, Gossip Genie
Allowing staff to work from home a couple of days a week is one suggestion for improving corporate culture. This contributes to the creation of a good and trustworthy environment. Allowing your staff to work from home establishes a tone for the company. It creates an open, informal, and easygoing atmosphere in the culture. It also boosts employee morale by demonstrating that you trust them to do their tasks regardless of where they work. As a result, a healthy business culture emerges, and staff morale rises.
17. Hold a workshop on storytelling.
Jessica Tower, President, Tower & Company
Holding a storytelling workshop in which workers develop and share tales with other team members is a unique but effective approach to improving business culture. Why they joined the firm, a moment when a team member exemplified the organization’s objective or a time when they overcame a hurdle to accomplish an important goal are all possible story starters. Storytelling workshops aid in the identification and expression of cultural values, as well as the enrichment of the organization’s folklore. Additionally, storytelling workshops aid in the development of workers’ leadership and communication abilities.
18. Be receptive to your workers’ constructive feedback.
Principal, Value Transformation, Jon M. Quigley
The manager must be the personification of the desired culture. It is beneficial to be equal in the organization when it comes to authority. The conversation or suggestions from the team should not be hampered by your job title. Employees have spoken back to me, never called me names, but were forceful, and you must be able to listen to them. Employees who are unable to express their emotions in the face of adversity are not productive. Better still, travel to that emotional place with them, giving them room to name the issue what it is, and then rapidly return the conversation to the subject at hand.
19. Create a mantra.
Music Firsthand’s CEO, Kris Potrafka
Every successful firm has a motto that unites employees, directs behavior and decision-making, and transcends individual leadership. The slogan, not the mission statement or charter, has personality and passion. A mantra develops its own life over time and provides the spark for a variety of things, including business traditions, branding, and goods. “Kick butt and have fun” was Sun Microsystems’ motto. These five words powered a whole society.
20. Make an effort to make new friends at work.
Shawn D. Madden, FunCorp’s Ambassador of Fun
Most businesses have no trouble investing time and money on healthcare, 401k plans, and other perks, yet they still lose key workers. Employees are departing not because the perks are inadequate, but rather because they lack a feeling of social connectivity at work. According to Gallup, intimate professional friendships increase employee happiness by 50%, and persons who have a best friend at work are seven times more likely to completely participate in their job. Friends will do more for other friends in a week than a colleague would do in a month, so why not engage in friendship development to create the culture your firm requires?
21. Plan activities to help the team bond.
Mystery Trip’s Chief Mysterious Officer, Dave Green
Getting out of the office is usually a smart idea when it comes to team bonding. A photographic treasure hunt, quiz night, escape rooms, an improv workshop, or even shooting a music video may bring people together in ways that dinner/drinks or going to a ball game cannot. Flattening an org chart so that everyone feels significant and heard has been shown to be crucial to improving team chemistry. People’s guards are down when they enjoy a unique shared experience, enabling them to enhance their connections and form new alliances.
22. Use a congratulatory bell.
Fred Schebesta, CEO & Co-Founder, finder.com
In our workplaces, we ring a bell to commemorate victories. The idea is simple: if something fantastic occurs, ring the bell to summon everyone to gather together and celebrate the victory. There’s nothing quite like witnessing your whole squad ecstatic after a win. You don’t have to use a bell, but the purpose is the same: express gratitude and acknowledgment. It will assist to fuel your employees’ enthusiasm and make them want to come to work every day knowing that they are appreciated rather than simply a number on the payroll.
23. Encourage your staff to follow their basic principles.
Image Group International’s CEO, Jon Michail
Understanding our own and other people’s underlying beliefs is critical in a variety of situations. When working on team dynamics, this is very vital. Many little irritants may be avoided by better knowing your coworkers’ fundamental values, and managers can learn to build stronger teams by balancing them out with people whose core values complement one another, ensuring that everyone contributes something valuable.
24. Create a code of conduct.
Volusion’s CEO, Kevin Sproles
Understanding your basic beliefs is important, but it is not the same as knowing your cultural code. There is a significant distinction. Because they aren’t actionable, core values aren’t powerful enough to stand on their own. It’s critical to add a codification layer to your fundamental principles after you’ve decided on them. We assign strategic goals to each cultural code. This implies that if we build a new program internally, we constantly go back to our code and check to see whether anything on the list contradicts it.
For example, we have customer-centric elements of our cultural code, so when we decide to increase pricing with consumers, we question whether our planned actions are a representation of what our code says. We built the corporate code as a consequence of examining our fundamental principles and cultural code, which we live by every day.
25. Create a feedback-oriented culture.
Hanapin Marketing’s Senior HR Coordinator, Molly Nagy
The fact that we have a culture based on feedback is the single most important driver of our award-winning culture. Because our workforce is dynamic and we seek to develop our company with them, we act and adapt depending on the input we get from them. We get input via a number of methods, including Leadership Coffees, Stay Interviews, Monthly Questions, Town Halls where workers may address any questions, and an Open Door Policy.
26. Provide programs that promote teamwork.
Phillip Cohen, CEO & Founder, Cohen Architectural Woodworking
At Cohen Architectural Woodworking, our programs go well beyond the traditional on-the-job training. Free leadership, business, mentorship, financial planning, free credit score consultation, and a Cohen Cares Program are among them. The latter entails tax-free contributions from salary to a specific fund for persons in need, which is managed by an employee committee. There is also a two-day retreat that is free of charge and focuses on restoring hope through assisting individuals in resolving previous trauma and concerns. These initiatives, taken together, demonstrate how much we value our workers. We learn a lot about them, and they learn a lot about us. At the end of the day, it builds a strong infrastructure, cohesion, and culture that will serve you well in the future, no matter what obstacles you encounter.
27. Incorporate sportsmanship into the workplace.
Whitney Walpole, Founder & CEO, Culture Counts
People (of all ages, genders, and locations) understand what it takes to succeed as a team — and sports teams teach these fundamentals. It fosters emotional involvement – “we’re in it together” – when firms concentrate like sports teams and produce a season victory that energizes workers, management, and owners. The game approach teaches long-term teamwork skills such as getting on the field to do your part (rather than sitting in the stands), the importance of scoring (taking responsibility for results), tuning the game plan (staying nimble), looking out for each other (having each other’s backs), facing losses (having difficult conversations), and celebrating wins together (making sure people know what they do makes a difference).
28. Encourage open communication as a bonus tip.
Maria Thomas, Content Marketing Manager & Product Specialist, GreyCampus
Every employee should have a one-on-one review meeting with the department director once a quarter, not only to analyze performance but also to get comments or recommendations and make improvements. Employee empowerment and engagement are critical for a company’s long-term success. At GreyCampus, we host a monthly open house when the CEO addresses the staff and outlines the month’s accomplishments, the quarter’s goals, any new product releases, and recognizes the month’s top achievers. This raises team morale and fosters a culture of open communication and achievement celebration.
Now it’s your turn.
Your company as a community expands as your business grows. As time goes on, a robust organizational framework emerges. Having a clear idea of what you want your firm to stand for makes it a better place to work and, eventually, a more desirable business to consumers.
Do you have any more suggestions for a corporate culture that you’d like to share? Please give your feedback in the box below.
Frequently Asked Questions
What 3 words describe the culture of a company?
The culture of a company is determined by its values, culture and purpose.
