Creating value in your company culture starts on day one. Sixty-nine percent of new employees stay with a company for more than three years if they believe their onboarding experience was great.
After that first impression, your efforts have to be all about maintaining your expectations and figuring out ways to encourage your employees to participate.
By taking the right steps, you can create an engaging company culture that makes your employees want to stick around for years to come. Read on to learn ways to make an effective plan and put it in place.
1. Give Them Effective Training
In order to have an effective team in your workplace, members will need to spend time together getting to know each other and figuring out ways to get things done. That could be done by using software and applications like Training Amigo, or good old fashioned team building games like ropes courses and flag football.
If you want your employees to be effective you will also need to give them training on ways to problem solve. Show them that everyone is an important part of the team.
2. Define Your Company Culture Values
If you want your employees to share your values, you have to be clear about what they are. Start by asking yourself what your company does and why it exists.
Then ask yourself what are your company’s values surrounding the way you do business? Finally, you will need to think about what your vision is for your company in the future and how you want to go about getting there.
After answering those questions, you can align your company culture to represent your values. This will be especially important for communicating with your employees where you are going as a company.
3. Decide Where Changes Need to be Made
If your company has been around for a while, but you haven’t yet created the culture you want, then you need to ask yourself what you’re doing wrong.
Culture starts with your very first employee and the set of beliefs and values that they bring to your company. If you find that your culture lacks energy, then you need to make that a priority when you are hiring new people for your team.
Or if you think your company has too much of a group-think mentality, then you can hire people who have a more independent management style. Never underestimate the importance of the individuals on your team for contributing to your overall company culture.
4. Hire the Right Personalities for HR
One of the most important personalities you need to have your team is a bubbly HR person. This will have a huge effect on the kind of team you are able to create.
Make sure the people you choose to be on your HR team are more than just people who are friendly. You need a team who has witnessed exceptional company cultures and knows how to craft a team.
5. Invest Time in Your Talent Brand
Your talent brand is the term for what your employees think about your company and the other people who work there. You need to communicate that you are a business who hires top talent if you want other quality employees to want to work for you.
One good way to demonstrate the talent only our team is by profiling your individual employees and sharing their stories as part of your company vision. This could be done on your website or in a presentation in a group setting.
By seeing how effective other team members have been able to be and learning about the struggles they have overcome to get where they are, your other team members will be inspired to do their best as well.
6. Optimize Your Hiring Process
If you want to have a great company culture, it all starts with the hiring process. You need to take the time on the front end to hire the right people especially if your business is fairly new.
To ensure your company grows as planned, make sure you optimize your interview process by having multiple people interview each potential new hire. That way, you can get multiple perspectives.
Another great technique for your hiring process is prioritizing someone’s attitude over their experiences. If you have a green employee who is able to do what it takes to catch up, then they can be just as valuable as an experienced person, perhaps even more so.
By hiring someone who is inexperienced, you can pay them less and give them an opportunity to prove themselves. They will be more likely to be enthusiastic about their training and will often work harder than those more established in their field.
7. Find Ways to Reinforce Your Values to Employees
If you want to have a vibrant company culture, you can’t just dream up a bunch of slogans, post them all over your walls, and expect everyone to fall into line. You need to find ways to go beyond your words to make it clear to your employees that you mean business.
Great ways to reinforce your company culture are holding volunteer events, company retreats, and looking out for your employees when they are struggling. Make sure everyone feels like they are part of the team and that you will be there for them if they need anything.
More Helpful Advice for Business Owners
The helpful tips in this article will help you create a company culture for your business that is rewarding and effective. But don’t stop there!
Check out our other articles for more resources for business owners.