“Culture is simply a shared way of doing something with a passion.” – Brian Chesky, Co-Founder, CEO, Airbnb
Culture, as defined by Merriam Webster’s, is “the characteristic features of everyday existence (such as diversions or a way of life) shared by people in a place or time and the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution or organization.”
The workplace culture is what your employees do every day, how they behave and what they say. It is the way they treat each other, the products they create and the customers they have.
Nowadays, lots of companies look for ways how they can build an influential corporate culture or improve an existing one. Let us take a glance at some of the most effective ones.
Identify a purpose
A company’s purpose means much more than a mission or vision statement. The company’s purpose is a reason why this organization exists in business and for what. No matter how it is conveyed to employees, the company’s primary goal is the driving force that helps the company identify its own brand, create and develop its desired and unbreakable culture.
If you are not sure where to start, here are some questions that can help you determine your core purpose:
- Why does your organization’s existence matter?
- Why is your company should be important to people?
- What will happen if your company suddenly ceases to exist?
- Why would anyone take their precious time, energy and passion to your company?
Knowing the primary goal of your company will increase your employees’ and customers’ engagement. It will also initiate a process of creating an organizational culture or will help strengthen the existing one. Your purpose-driven brand will inspire and show people that you are trying to some more than just do business.
Define common language and values
To build and organize a strong workplace culture, your employees should speak the same language and share the same values. The language should be understandable for people of absolutely all positions — from the CEO of the company to the staff member.
Equally important should be a set of values, which are your company’s principles. You should also formulate a set of standards that will measure how your principles are being observed.
To make your company’s culture cohesive, you should align your values, standards, principles and language. Cohesiveness must be your final aim, but it can become only a short-term solution.
In order to build a long-lasting culture, you should understand that culture will need adaptations as the company grows. Make your culture as flexible as possible, as it will need to acclimate to different employees and changing times.
Organize an employee onboarding process
Why do companies need employee onboarding and how onboarding is related to the company's culture?
First, let us find out what onboarding is. ExactHire gives the clearest and most understandable definition.
“Employee onboarding, also known as organizational socialization, refers to the mechanism through which new employees acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and behaviors to become effective organizational members and insiders.”
The best onboarding process starts before the new hire’s first day. It should be filled with all necessary for new employee information — from office map to the first tasks.
To make your onboarding effective, you should give life to it. The best way to do it — make your onboarding process fully automated. Surely most of the companies have some manuals, instructions, handbooks that they give new employees on their first day at work. All this stuff you can put in one place — employee onboarding academy. With each passing day, academies become increasingly popular platforms for education and training. It's not unreasonable.
Academies can be filled with all types of content (pictures, diagrams, videos, etc.). You can add a quiz to the end of the academy to check your employee’s knowledge.
Moreover, you will be able to have detailed statistics on each learner, for example, the number of lessons they’ve learned or time spent in your Academy.
Academies help bring the mission and vision of your company to new employees. After finishing the academy, they will clearly understand the values and main goals of your company.
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