The Update

How to build a positive company culture

A company culture describes the beliefs and values a business upholds. It generally includes the company’s long-term goals and visions, its mission statement, as well as various details about its work environment and company policies.

Establishing a positive company culture in your workplace can have several significant benefits, including:

• Engaged and happy employees
• Lower employee turnover rates
• Higher productivity
• Increased team morale
• Positive company image

However, a strong and vibrant company culture doesn’t just happen. It takes intentionality. Here’s how to proactively create a positive company culture:

Define your company’s values

Take a moment to define your company’s core values and goals. Why did you launch your business? What is the single most important value to your business? In what way do you hope to improve the lives of your clients? What niche do you hope to fill in your industry?

Turn your list into a simple, yet actionable, statement to help build the first component of a positive company culture.

As you work through this step, it’s a good idea to look for ways you can improve your business practices and processes to better align them with your values and goals.

Ask your employees

Your employees can provide a unique perspective into your company. Send your employees a short survey to get feedback on various aspects of your business, including specific company policies, work processes and more.

Here are some questions you can include in your survey:

• What’s your favorite part about working here?
• If you could change one company policy, which would you change, and why?
• What are your personal goals for your job here?
• How can we improve our company culture?
• Do you believe there is effective communication between the various levels of workers?
• Do you know and agree with the company goals?
• How can we boost productivity?

When building or improving your company culture, be sure to incorporate the results of your survey.

Check out the competition

Having trouble defining your company’s values and purpose into an actionable phrase? Check out the mission statements, branding and values of your competitors and peers, or of any business in your industry and beyond, for inspiration. Take note of what you like and don’t like in other companies, and use these notes to build your own company culture.

Create a mission statement

Now that you have defined your company’s values and goals, surveyed your employees and researched the competition, you’re ready to create a mission statement for your business. A mission statement is a concise message describing your company’s goals and products in a way the average person can understand. Your mission statement will incorporate your company values and goals, and serve as a foundation to your company culture.

Put your company culture into writing

You now have all the components you need to create a positive company culture for your business. Take the time to blend all the various parts of your culture, including the values, goals and mission statements of your business, as well as the work environment and employee behavior you hope to build.

Implement and tweak as necessary

After you’ve created your company culture, you can work on sharing it with your employees and implementing it in your workplace.

Build an action plan to help successfully implement your company culture. This will likely be a multi-step process taking several weeks, or even months. Be sure to incorporate your mission statement, vision, goals and values as you work through this process. When you’ve implemented your company culture successfully, every aspect of your company should reflect your defined company culture.

Finally, be sure to review and tweak as necessary on a regular basis.

A positive company culture can do wonders for increasing the level of productivity and employee retention at your company so you can better grow your business. Follow the tips outlined here to learn how to build a positive company culture.