How to Guide: What is Company Culture & Who Creates it?
26 November 2024
Understanding Company Culture
Definition: Culture is not about the physical office space or mandatory office attendance. It’s about a clear framework of values and intentionality, achievable both remotely and in-person.
Authenticity: A healthy culture allows employees to be themselves without fear of repercussions.
Growth and Transparency: It’s characterized by a focus on employee growth, transparency, openness to dialogue, and receptiveness to criticism.
Employee Value: Culture is demonstrated by how a company shows it cares about its employees as individuals and recognizes their contributions.
Who is Responsible for Company Culture?
Leadership Role: 83% of respondents in a Quantum Workplace survey believe company leaders are primarily responsible for shaping organizational culture.
Managerial Influence: 75% say managers play a crucial role.
HR and Employees: 57% believe HR and individual contributors also contribute significantly.
Culture comes from the top down, during the pandemic, some leaders laid off employees, micromanaged or burdened others left behind while others gave extra support or perks as a thank you and built a more inclusive workplace.
Elements of a Healthy Culture
Trust and Empowerment: Establish a culture of trust to empower employees.
Adaptability to Change: Recognize that culture can evolve, as seen during the pandemic where remote and hybrid models often improved company culture.
Mission and Values: 54% believe culture is strongly represented by the organization’s mission or values.
Recognition and Celebrations: Celebrate and acknowledge achievements to reinforce culture.
Performance Approach: Tailor your approach to employee performance to reflect cultural values.
Physical Environment: While less critical, the physical workplace still plays a role in culture for 28% of employees.
Toxic cultures can cause employee depression, decreased productivity, declining engagement, feelings of being unimportant or unrecognized to the point of having no choice but to leave employers.
Building a Healthy Culture
Gender Equity and DEI: Prioritize gender equity, anti-racism, and strong diversity, equity, and inclusion at all levels, including senior management.
Social Events: Schedule work-hour social events like potlucks or themed days for bonding and engagement.
Out-of-Office Activities: Plan activities outside regular work commitments, ensuring employee input on preferences.
Volunteering Opportunities: Offer and encourage time off for volunteering.
Role Flexibility: Allow employees to experience different roles or shadow colleagues in other departments.
Personalized Rewards: Tailor rewards to individual interests and achievements.
Speak to the employees being celebrated, so that office movie buffs may get movie passes, office sports fanatic may get tickets to a sports event or the office’s early tech adopter may get a new gadget to play with.
Flexible Work Environments: Adapt work environments to meet diverse employee needs.
Training and Development: Implement development programs and provide educational subsidies to nurture talent.
This can be casual monthly lunch and learn sessions to encourage employees to pick up new skills from coworkers, or build a more intensive training program to prepare select employees for leadership roles.
Can provide subsidies for paid off site educational institutions.
Team Building: Regularly engage in team-building exercises to foster trust.
Leadership Accessibility: Ensure employees have access to leadership and can share ideas or grievances.
Health culture builds teams based on trust and performs regular team building exercises with staff whether formal or informal.
Mentorship and Growth: Offer mentorship and show clear paths for growth and development.
Internal Promotions: Promote from within and develop mentorship programs for knowledge sharing and employee value.
Provide needed training & certification courses
Departmental Flexibility: Encourage inter-departmental learning and flexibility, allowing employees a chance of pace where they have the chance to switch roles or shadow employees in other areas of the office or branch to enhance cross-skilling
Building a healthy company culture is a collaborative effort involving leaders, managers, HR, and all employees. It’s about creating an environment where values are lived, growth is encouraged, and everyone feels valued and heard. By focusing on these aspects, employers can cultivate a culture that not only retains talent but also drives organizational success.
Below is an infographic depicting the elements of the ideal and healthy work environment.
