9 Benefits of a Strong Corporate Culture

Make no mistake about it: Your company culture affects nearly every area of
your business. A strong company culture can improve everything from
employee retention to the amount of revenue your organization generates. It’s
far more than just something an organization should have; it’s critical to the
organization’s stability, longevity and perception.

Are you still skeptical about investing time and energy into building a positive
culture? Keep reading to learn about some of the many different benefits a
strong corporate culture provides.

1. Customer Satisfaction
A company with satisfied customers is a profitable company. You may
wonder how internal culture could please customers. When your team is
strong as a unit, it is better equipped to put forth exceptional work,
create exceptional products and deliver exceptional service. The result?
Happy customers that stick around, keep buying, refer others, and buy
more per purchase.

2. Revenue Gains
Corporate culture affects revenue in a similar way to customer
satisfaction. Customers sense when an organization works in harmony
and when employees are content with their jobs. Doing business with
companies that display these traits is typically pleasant and easy – the
type of experience customers want and will return to have again and
again.

3. Steady Growth
42% of respondents to the Business of Healthy Employees survey say a
healthy workforce drives employee engagement.1 Healthy company
culture is one of the driving forces behind engagement. Employees who
are engaged and feel confident in their employer’s products and
services tend to work harder and perform better. A good work ethic and
elevated performance inevitably breed successful outcomes. When an
organization is successful, it is in the perfect position for long-term,
sustainable growth.

4. Increased Motivation
When it comes to motivating employees, it is not enough for them to
enjoy their work, find their purpose or fulfill their own professional goals.
 All three must be in place in order to provide optimum motivation. Well
defined values and a strong culture are essential for creating these
three elements. The result is pure magic, with a 41% reduction in
absenteeism and a 17% increase in productivity.2

5. Better Decision Making

A well-defined mission, vision and corporate values support employees’
ability to make sound decisions. It gives them a framework for reference
and answers to questions they may have as they move through the
decision making process. This guidance leads them toward making
decisions that are aligned with company goals.

6. Enhanced Ability to Attract Top Talent

First impressions are everything when it comes to attracting and landing
the best job candidates. 78% of candidates say the hiring experience
indicates how a company values its people.3 They are also drawn to
working environments that incorporate clearly defined values and a firm
sense of purpose. These days, candidates have several ways to figure
out if potential employers offer this type of environment including
employee reviews on websites such as Glassdoor. If your company
culture is not conducive to showing employees they are valued,
candidates will find this out and vice versa.

7. Better Employee Retention

Landing top talent is only half the battle. Retaining them is where the
real work begins. 47% of HR leaders cite employee turnover and
retention as their top challenges.4 Employees have come to expect
more from their employer than a paycheck, health insurance and paid
time off. They crave an environment that encourages and welcomes
knowledge sharing and collaboration, and rewards positive behavior. It
is no wonder that highly engaged business cultures experience 59%
less turnover.5

8. Happier, Healthier Employees

54% of professionals base their career choices on finding a healthy
work-life balance.6 The work related stress epidemic is real and so is the
desire to escape it. Employees, especially those with families, resent
the idea of bringing work home with them. They do not want anything to
intrude on their personal time with loved ones. A corporate culture that
embraces a healthy work-life balance through benefits such as working
remotely sometimes or giving employees the option to leave early in the
 summer on Fridays will produce employees that come to work feeling
refreshed and ready to take on the day.

9. More Desirable Company Image

Word-of-mouth should never be underestimated, especially in the digital
age. Your employees’ social circles have widened from their “real life”
communities to their digital communities. As mentioned previously,
Glassdoor allows anyone considering working at your company to read
reviews by current and former employees. The impact of company
image does not stop there. Stakeholders and customers also use online
review sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Google, Yelp and others it to
gauge their interest in doing business with organizations. The stronger
your corporate culture is, the more likely employees are to speak
positively about your company.

Conclusion

State of the American Workplace helps leaders like you:

 design and deliver a compelling and authentic employer brand

 take employee engagement from a survey to a cultural pillar that
improves performance
 approach performance management in ways that motivate employees
 offer benefits and perks that influence attraction and retention
 enable people to work successfully from locations besides the office
 improve clarity and communication for employees who work on multiple
teams

Strong Leaders Use Times of Crisis to Transform

Companies
Crises tend to bring out either the best or the worst in people. Some rise to the
occasion, while others may flounder. Leaders are no exception. Their stamina
is tested in difficult circumstances.
Giving someone a title does not automatically make them a leader – their
performance does. When managers overcome challenges and lead their team
to success, they exhibit true leadership qualities.

There is no doubt about it: strong leaders use times of crisis to transform
companies. But how do they achieve this transformation during a pandemic or
times of uncertainty?

Bridge the Gap Caused by Socially Distanced Teams 

Managing a team that is distributed due to the pandemic rather than by the
company’s choice is an art. Leadership must take a number of factors into
account including employees’ circumstances at home (for example, if they
have children they must watch or entertain during the workday), the size of the
team, the different skill levels of employees and their strengths or weaknesses
(for example, some employees may struggle to master technology necessary
for working remotely).

It is up to managers to mitigate the potentially harmful effects of team

distribution. It is easy for shared values and collaboration to take a back seat
in these unprecedented circumstances, especially when the world seems to
change on a daily basis. Leaders must act as the glue that holds the team
together and ensures that no employees slip through the cracks, so to speak.
They must create organizational unity amid physical separation.

Communication Is Paramount 

When the human brain is left to reach a conclusion without factual information,
its negative bias often concocts doomsday scenarios. So, when leadership
fails to communicate with employees on a regular basis during a crisis,
employees assume the worst. This can create an atmosphere of panic and
resentment.

Instead, managers should establish and maintain an open, honest discourse

to keep employees informed of the latest. While it is tempting for leadership to
appear all-knowing and completely in control, letting down their guard a bit
and showing their humanity will help them win employees’ trust. When people
feel that others can empathize with them and understand their plight, they are
more inclined to trust their decisions.
Managers should come up with ways to keep employees informed about the
latest business updates and how the company is responding. Internal
meetings are ideal because they allow employees to ask questions and voice
their concerns. However, if meetings are not always possible, communicating
via email will suffice. Additionally, managers should encourage members of
their team to approach them with any questions or concerns they may have.

Make Employees Part of the Solution 

It is reflexive for leadership to take the reigns when it comes to formulating

solutions to the problems caused by a crisis. However, by leaving employees
out of the equation, managers can make employees feel disengaged and like
they are not valued.

Making employees part of the solution, on the other hand, demonstrates that
their contributions are valuable. Furthermore, since no one person or small
group of people has all the answers, tapping into each employee’s area of
strength greatly increases the likelihood of creating successful outcomes.
Managers should make it known that everyone’s voice will be heard and then
listen carefully to the ideas that are presented.

Times of crisis can be stressful and discouraging. However, by following these

strategies and involving employees in the response, as well as keeping the
lines of communication wide open, leaders will transform their business into a
mighty force.

Discover more inspiring ideas for exciting experiences that boost

morale and engage your people. Contact Gavel International for details.

 Author

 Recent Posts
Students of leadership  and management are often stumped when the
conversation turns to organizational culture. That’s because the concept is not
clearly defined, varying from professional to professional, from organization to
organization, and from industry to industry.

Nonetheless, author Michael D. Watkins says  there’s little doubt that

organizational culture exists , and “it plays a crucial role in shaping
behavior in organizations.” His interviews with business leaders turned up
many definitions, including:

 “Culture is how organizations ‘do things’.”

 “… Culture is a product of compensation.”
 “Organizational culture is the sum of the values and rituals which
serve as ‘glue’ to integrate the members of the organization.”

What is Organizational Culture

Organizational culture has been defined as comprising the values and
behaviors of a company’s employees. These factors can include:

 Overall tone of the shared employee experience

 Shared visions, mission statements and expectations
 Motivation and reward systems
 Views on leadership and authority relationships
 Work ethic
 Codes of conduct
 Environmental factors
 Social norms
 Risk tolerance

Such characteristics play an important role in determining whether project

objectives are achieved, the PMBOK Guide notes.

How employees view their role in a project – and their function in the
company as a whole – can be considered a foundational aspect of
organizational culture. In turn, a company’s structure and projects can be
shaped by organizational culture. Projects that are seen as aligning with
organizational culture may have smoother implementation and higher
success rates compared to projects that conflict with those cultural norms.

The best way to get a grasp on organizational culture is to identify the

elements that go into a successful one. The Harvard Business Review
identifies  six components:

 Vision: A shared vision stems from a carefully crafted mission

statement that answers the following three questions: Who is being
served? What needs are being satisfied? How are those needs being
satisfied?
 Values: Values exemplify the behaviors that are expected from
employees.
 Practices: Practices explain how the vision and values are put into
effect. Leadership must set an example for workers to follow.
 People: Workers need to demonstrate not just excellent capabilities
and a high level of productivity, but an ability to align to the company
culture and vision.
 Narrative: Organizations must share this with employees — even
those who have just started — to make sure everyone understands where
the company came from and where it is headed.
 Place: The physical workplace environment can have a strong impact
on culture. Recent trends have leaned toward open and highly
collaborative workspaces , but there has been some backlash against  this
thinking.Authors Kim Cameron and Robert Quinn have identified four
types of organizational cultures in their groundbreaking
book, Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture, Based on the
Competing Values Framework .
The Importance of Culture
FastCompany writes that culture is what drives an organization forward ,
and those organizations with performance-oriented cultures see greater
growth, involvement, communication and willingness to try new things. In
Deloitte’s 2016 Global Human Capital Trends survey,  82 percent of
respondents said culture is a potential competitive advantage . At the same
time, only 28 percent of respondents said they understood their
organizational culture well.

Culture is important because it:

 Reinforces (and sometimes sets) expectations, rewards and behaviors.

 Is closely related to employee engagement, which is a leading
indicator of productivity and participation.
 Can predict whether mergers and acquisition will fail, because
mismatched cultures create friction and resistance.

Changing the Culture

Cultural change needs to start at the top of the organization with leaders,
such as a chief people officer, setting expectations and displaying the
behaviors they expect from managers and workers. From that point,
organizations can do the following:

1. Get input: Culture is best designed with cooperation. Organizations

should bring in stakeholders from throughout the organization —
from the C-suite to the front line — to provide perspective and
describe the type of business they want to work for.
2. Create a roadmap: Once the organization knows where it’s going, it
needs to determine how to get there. That involves creating a strategic
plan with clear objectives and milestones. No one should expect
change to happen overnight.
3. Explain outcomes and benefits: This involves rewarding behavior that
aligns with the culture.
4. Measure the results: It’s not enough to have a sense that things are
moving in the right direction. Organizations should get hard data to
assess what is working and what is not. Employee feedback surveys,
administered by the human resources function, can help perform spot-
checks and identify potential weaknesses.