To develop your company healthily, you need to create an internal culture
Everybody wants a reduced turnover rate and employees who enjoy what they do. I already talked about how to motivate your employees, yet I realized this is just a small part of a whole. In the end, to ensure your company’s environment is anything but toxic, you need to lay down a stable foundation with healthy principles. How do you do it? Simply. By creating a company culture.
What is company culture?
The official definition states that company culture is “the tacit social order of an organization”. The explicit one is “pointing out explicitly what behaviours and actions are encouraged, discouraged, accepted or rejected within a group”. In a nutshell, what does your company stand for, how would you like your employees to act and how would you like to be perceived by others.
However, it is important to keep in mind that culture is a living organism. Since it is defined by people, whose only constant is change, culture is amorphous. You cannot shift it directly in one way or another suddenly. It requires time and reinforcement to become stable.
Why does your company need an internal culture?
Usually, the inside of a company reflects in the taken actions. In other words, if you want to build something that stands out in the marketplace you are in, it has to start from the inside. Whether we talk about the perks you have – for instance, at Oves Enterprise, we pride ourselves in having top-notch expert developers. Now, this is noticeable in our work culture as well. If any other developer needs help on something technical, they can reach out to our experts and they will be helped. Or if it’s about “shocking rules” you have – let’s say, the team should have lunch together or they need to have at least one informal get-together per month. The idea is that if outsiders don’t understand how you’re doing things inside, but on the outside is great – you are doing it right.
Yet, it’s important for you, as a company manager, to align with what you say, and what you ask for others – behaviours, processes, policies.
Types of company cultures
I’ll be brief about this, promise. I know it’s a lot of “blabla” social psychology stuff, but if you want to define your company culture, it’s important to pick the type. There are 4 grand categories, but fortunately, most companies are mixed. Let’s get through them fast, shall we?
Shared – it speaks about shared behaviours, values, assumptions and it is experienced through unwritten rules.
Pervasive – it’s manifested through collective behaviours, physical environment, group rituals, visible symbols, stories and legends. These are the written ones. There are also the unseen aspects, such as mindset, motivations, unspoken assumptions and mental models.
Enduring – this is developed through critical events in the collective life (such as a crisis) and it’s enhanced when individuals who can relate to the past of the company remain, while others leave. In this type of culture, social patterns become resistant to change and outside influences.
Implicit – the one where people are hardwired to respond to the company culture implicitly. It is expected for certain themes to recur.
Now that we went through all the definitions of culture, let’s get this started. How can you develop a healthy company? By building a culture of empowerment, focused on people.
1.Hire the right team
I know how this sounds. The main question is “how do you define the right team?” Is it the personality, the attitude, the technical skills? It’s a bit of everything. When you make a new addition to the team it’s important to see if they match – both on a technical and personal level. For instance, if the group is mostly outgoing and tends to make more jokes, it’d be difficult for somebody shy to fit in. Unless, of course, they are open to this.
At Oves Enterprise, the first item we take into account is their technical level. Then, as the interview advances, we also take a glimpse in their attitude and their ideal workplace. We want everyone to feel welcome and part of the team. However, it’s safe to say our company attracts the people who would fit in.
2. Job satisfaction should be a priority
At Oves Enterprise, one of our internal values is to ensure everyone likes what they are doing. That roughly translates into giving constructive feedback on tasks, having one on ones about the overall job description and knowing if they want to grow. Growth, as well, is our value.
So, if we have developers who would like to advance in their fields – let’s say, they are good at JavaScript but would like to learn React as well, we give them learning opportunities through training programs. We need to decrease the turnover rate, so we make an effort in this direction. If they require more feedback, we make an effort in providing it.
People leave jobs when they feel they reached the plateau and if they don’t feel appreciated. We work actively on avoiding this because, at Oves Enterprise, people matter.
3. Let your employees be themselves
Apple was a big thing since the beginning because it was rebellious. Jobs ditched the whole button-down shirt appearance in favour of sandals and jeans. Nowadays, however, the dress code shouldn’t be that important – of course, the decency is highly required and not second-guessed or discussed.
What it’s important to keep in mind is that it’s important to have a structure in terms of incentive systems, career paths and objectives. Yet you cannot give the same salary to a developer as you would for a marketer, so why would you expect them to dress and work the same?
The bottom line is that you need to have a basic structure, yet it needs to be adapted for each individual, on all levels.
4. Be more transparent in communication
As a C-level, transparency is a double-sword issue. The debate “how much should they know” is as old as time. Yet, it is important to communicate with your employees. They need to know what’s going on so that they can do their jobs. Sometimes, people lack motivation – they don’t seem to understand how their work fits in the grand scheme of things.
If used correctly, transparency helps employees to think more strategically and can even come with more dedication from them.
5. Reinforce the team mentality
The tendency in a competitive environment is to praise individuals, not teams. However, to have a thriving company culture, it’s important to have both. Praise the team effort overall, and if you know that your employees need extra reassurance, do that as well. Yet, it’s important to foster a culture of collaboration, not of individualism.
6. Remember good decisions can come from anywhere
At Oves Enterprise, we live by this. We know our team is composed mostly of experts, so it’s easy to say it. Yet, sometimes, the ones who come with good ideas aren’t always experts. Less experienced developers can have a clearer insight on an arduous task and be helpful.
Your company culture needs to have this component as well – to let people know that their opinion matters. After all, you value people through their expertise and insights, and not titles. Even more, expanding your employee’s freedom are cornerstones of attracting more talented individuals.
7. Lead by example
It’s easy to write a bunch of rules on a wall – similar to “live love laugh” and expect everyone to follow them. But that’s never ever going to happen. You, as a company manager, are the most representative person of the company. If you do not practice what you preach, then everything goes to drain.
Yes, you don’t have to use the above-mentioned items as the structure of your company culture. Maybe you have other dimensions that are more relevant to your company. But whatever they are, you need to live and implement them.
To sum it up, work can be either liberating or alienating. No matter how many technological advances are made, if the core of the company is sick due to the lack of flexibility, you will not be capable of having a healthy company. Yet, it’s important to keep in mind that striving to create an authentic organization and working on realizing the full human potential, is a grand challenge. It can be done, but it requires extra effort and continuous reinforcement from all members. But, everything starts from the top-down. So if you, as a manager are capable of implementing them, it will become possible.
