Secrets to Maintaining a Thriving Company Culture

Over the last year, we have had many clients say they are worried about their company culture given the hybrid work environment and have asked us what they can do to maintain their company culture. We have seen some clients thrive in their hybrid environment and others decline in the new workplace environment resulting in disengaged employees and a high level of quiet quitting. Every company has a company culture whether they work to shape it or allow it to shape itself. The unique set of values and behaviors that organizations want their employees to follow in the workplace is what creates their company culture. 

When employees embrace the company’s culture, the organization succeeds, and employees feel a stronger commitment towards their organization and experience higher levels of engagement and belonging. Upholding the culture is a critical job as a leader. So, how do you ensure your employees are living the mission and vision? 

Below are some tips to keep your team on track to maintain a strong company culture. 

Connection to the Values and Goals

We hear about vision, mission, and goals all the time. The reason why is that they are critical to the company’s success, as well as maintaining the culture. Having them on the wall is not the same as living them. We know that the more employees are able to connect how their goals accomplish the vision, it results in more loyal employees who experience higher levels of engagement and belonging. The first step for you as a leader is to have a clear understanding of the mission, vision, and goals. Then, you need to clearly articulate them to your employees so they can embrace the vision and help accomplish the goals. When employees understand and connect to the mission and vision, as well as understand how their goals accomplish these, the company will be unstoppable.

Hire Right 

In order to maintain your company’s culture, you need to hire employees who want to preserve the mission and values that your company represents. During the interview process, ask the candidate questions around the values and goals in order to ensure they are fit to the company’s. Asking questions around “cultural fit” during the interview will help determine if the candidate will not only bring value to the organization, but also help accomplish the mission and upload the values. All of these are needed to maintain your company culture. 

Culture Keeper

Seventy percent of an employee’s satisfaction and engagement is in direct correlation to the relationship they have with their leader. So, in a way, you are the culture keeper for your organization. Each leader can create their own culture in their department that either aligns to the organization’s, or not. If you want your employees to truly embody the company culture you, as a leader, need to be a role model for the vision and culture. If you live the company values, your employees will follow. The best way to keep your employees on track with upholding the company’s culture is to recognize and reward your employees when they do a good job representing the company’s values and goals. Remember, employees repeat what they are rewarded for.

Hold Staff Accountable

If an employee is not living the mission and vision of the organization and is just trying to squeak by under the radar, it is critical to the culture that you coach and counsel them on what the expectations are for their performance, as well as accomplishing their work. If you don’t hold employees accountable, other employees will catch on quickly that you are not serious about your expectations and you will most likely demotivate your top performers. This will result in top performers either defecting to another area in the company or worse, another company where their talents are appreciated, and all employees are held to the same standards.  

Assess the Culture

Last, you need to assess your culture to determine if you are on track. Especially since individual managers can keep different cultures across the same organization. One way to build and nurture a thriving culture is by checking in with employees often through employee engagement surveys or employee experience surveys. By looking at the data by leader or department, you can quickly assess where leaders have broken away from the culture and are in need of assistance to get back on track. These surveys will measure the culture on multiple drivers to assess if leaders and employees are living the vision and values as well as helping to execute the goals to maintain the culture.

Having a strong company culture is not only critical to the organization’s success, but to employee’s engagement and belonging. The stronger the culture, the more people will be drawn to it and fight to uphold it.