The Importance Of Company Culture To Business Success

The face of business has evolved and changed dramatically over the past few decades. A relatively new factor that has come into the limelight that can affect business success is company culture.

But what exactly is company culture and how can it impact business success?

What Is Company Culture?

Company culture is the character or personality of your business. It is basically the definition of the work environment. Different industries and companies within those industries have varying cultures. For example, Google has a well-known company culture that differs greatly from that of say a corporate law firm.

What Are The Attributes Of Company Culture?

There are a number of attributes that define company culture:

• The values, morals and ethics of your business.
• The goals and mission of the company.
• Expectations of employees and how they act within the work environment and portray the company.
• How the company embraces digital media and technology.
• The physical work environment.
• Incentives and benefits that are offered to employees.

All of these factors can be used to create a definition of your own unique company culture.

Tools To Help Your Company Succeed!

There are a number of tools that can assist you build a strong company culture. These include Slack, email clients like Outlook, meditation apps, etc. One of the most important apps is to get an employee engagement platform that suits the needs of your business.

Why Is Company Culture So Important To Business Success?

In the past, businesses looked similar, operated under similar policies and employed staff member using the same policies and procedures. The evolution of business has however resulted in small to huge variations in these factors among different businesses. Understanding what makes your business different and therefore unique is what separates it from the competition. These differences are a critical selling point for any business and is inherent in building a strong brand.

Competition for the same market, customers and even employees has also grown exponentially. Employees are a valuable asset and investing in top talent for the long-term will contribute to business success. Top employees are however not going to be attracted to working for a company where there is no culture or where they culture is ill-defined. Defining a company culture provides you with the opportunity to employee staff that compliment the culture and current and for potential candidates to assess your company according to their needs.

Another important factor relating to employees and company culture is millenials. Millenials may just be starting to hit the job market but in 10 years time, will make up about 50% of the workforce. These incoming employees want to work for employers who are willing to go the extra mile to provide a workplace that matches their requirements according to their skill set. Millenials don’t just want a job – they want to integrate their work into their lives. The ability to eat, sleep and exercise at work are some benefits that attract the top millenial employees.

A well defined company culture is also essential to customers or clients understanding your business. It is not just the products and services that you offer that matter anymore but how you run your business and the environment that the business operates in. For example, ensuring that your company goes green, recycles and employs environmentally friendly solutions will attract an entirely new set of potential customers.

Defining your company culture also gives your employees a voice and allows them to act as representatives of the business rather than just employees who are expected to do a job. This gives them a sense of belonging to the company encouraging them to perform to the best of their abilities. A well defined culture will also allow them to reflect the values of the company in order to attract more customers as well as better employees.

At face value, company culture may seem to be about benefits and the working environment offered to employees. But at the end of the day, cultivating a strong culture is about business success.