A company’s culture is a blend of the vision, values and work environment, along with in-house behavior of the organization. It represents how a company functions, the way employees feel about it, how it is perceived, its reputation, and so on.

It is important to have clearly defined values, beliefs, and attitudes that make up the culture of a company. Moreover, it helps you to continue to prioritize those values, beliefs and attitudes as the business grows. It also ensures that the culture remains consistent with the number of employees you have just a handful, or over a 1,000. A strong company culture fosters a set of beliefs and behaviors among a company’s employees. This is not something your employees bring with them when they join you. It exists through careful cultivation and evolution over the years and plays a big role in the success of a company.

In a study of CEOs and CFOs in the US, more than 50% said that corporate culture influenced productivity, creativity, value, profitability and growth. And almost everyone believed improving their company’s culture would improve their organization’s value. In another survey, 86% of the respondents considered company culture to be crucial to the success of any business.

Ways to Maintain Company Culture

Start with Foundation

When launching a company, you start with certain beliefs and experiences and build it the way you want to. But your company’s values and vision will go beyond your personality. It is very important that you build a foundation with these core principles. You also realize that no matter how big your company grows, you will stick by the culture you envisioned and work towards it. To have everyone aligned with the goals and to support your employees, you must use proper leadership style and values. If your core principle is to offer the best customer service or to be loyal to your clients, make sure to support that and clearly communicate that to your employees.

Vision for Culture

When you start building a company, you visualize certain prospects for it. The very first thing is to create goals and work towards them. Then, create a plan, hire people and work hard to achieve those. Having the right vision is important while creating a strong company culture. And, for that, you must make sure to create realistic and achievable goals and not some mindless unrealistic ones just to make promises to your employees which can never become reality.

Rigorous Hiring Practices

The best way to preserve your company’s culture is to hire people carefully. Make sure that new people joining your company are well-qualified and also fit your organization perfectly. You can use a team approach while interviewing prospective candidates. They must also fit with the people they would be working with every day.

Talk About Your Values

You should make sure that your hiring process has your company culture and values at the centre. This will also help your prospective candidates take decisions. So, keep talking about your company values and culture during the interview process. Ensure that the on-boarding practices have clear expectations so that those joining the team understand your culture from the very beginning. You can even ask questions at the interview based on your company values.

Maintain Traditions

When your company has just a handful of people, small traditions tend to develop, but these may get lost as you grow. But this should not happen. Make sure that your traditions continue no matter how big your business grows—even when you have maybe multiple locations and more than 1,000 employees.

Recognize Employee Achievements

This must be a part of a company’s culture because it helps promote loyalty and work satisfaction in employees. You should also celebrate special dates, like birthdays, anniversaries and important achievements for your employees. It shows that you care. Doing these small things help much more than holding big reward ceremonies. People need recognition to feel appreciated more often than just at the rewards functions once a year.

Keep Communication Channels Open

To promote a family feel and culture is to keep feedback channels from your employees open. Maintaining an open-door policy will surely help your business stay grounded. You should try to get out of your office once in a while. You can take a look at the production line or have a word with the delivery person and ensure you know the names of the people you interact with. This will help you learn invaluable things and keep you close to your employees and people will see how much you care.

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