As a leader, it is your job to stay focused on boosting revenue and becoming a more profitable organization. However, staying laser-focused on financial outcomes to the detriment of company culture and the human factors of the equation can lead to failure.
Corporate culture is the glue that holds an organization together. Without a positive culture, a company faces ongoing turnover, unproductive employees and decreased ability to attract top talent. A strong company culture improves employee happiness and satisfaction, and ultimately boosts productivity, efficiency and retention - and the bottom line.
How Company Culture Impacts Your Business
Not convinced that company culture impacts the bottom line? Consider these facts:
- Turnover at companies with a strong culture is less than 10%, compared to companies with a poor culture where turnover can be rampant.
- Happy employees are, on average, 12% more productive than unhappy employees.
- Companies with high levels of employee engagement are 22% more profitable than companies with low engagement.
So how, as a leader, can you help shape a positive culture to impact the bottom line?
Connect Work to the Company Mission
Without goals, engagement is impossible. If someone sent you to dig a hole in hot weather and difficult conditions, but they didn't tell you why you were digging, you probably wouldn't do it for very long. But if that person told you that you were helping to dig for a newly discovered trove of priceless archeological treasure, your work would suddenly have meaning.
The same is true for your team. If your employees don't know why they are doing their jobs every day or what impact it has on the company mission and vision, they will not feel engaged. It is important to connect everyone to the mission of the company and provide them with clear and transparent goals that reflect that mission. This way, they understand how even their most boring or mundane tasks matter to the big picture.
Provide Tools for Success
It's not enough just to set goals for your employees. They need to be set up for success. Make sure:
- your technology is up-to-date;
- your processes eliminate friction, bottlenecks and redundancies; and
- your employees have the resources to learn and grow in their roles.
Develop a System for Delivering Ongoing Employee Feedback
Relying on once-a-year reviews to provide employee feedback is ineffective, and often a complete waste of time. It is important to deliver immediate, actionable feedback whenever someone does something positive you'd like them to repeat, or something negative you'd like them to correct. Dealing with these things immediately gives employees a chance to develop good habits and prevent bad habits from forming.
Make Accountability a Priority
The best tools and all the feedback in the world won't matter at all without accountability. Make sure every person in the organization has been provided an accurate job description, clear goals and clear KPIs that are used to measure their success. This ensures they know what your definition of "success" is, and they know where to spend their time each day.
Managers should use those job descriptions, goals and KPIs to offer their feedback and provide coaching form improvement when necessary. As employees learn they will be held accountable for the goals and standards set for them, they will become more invested in what they are doing and will begin to hold themselves more accountable, as well.
Offer Development Opportunities
A positive culture is one that values employee development and growth. Talented people want to be challenged, and they want to work for employers who support them in their desire to build their skills and experience. Whether it's sponsoring employees who attend conferences and seminars, offering tuition or certification reimbursement, or providing in-house training or mentoring, an investment in development is an investment in the bottom line. In short order, you'll start to notice higher levels of performance, improved efficiencies and innovation across the organization.
Lead by Example
Whether you know it or not, your employees model your behavior every day. From the moment you step out of your car to the moment you climb back in, you are on stage. If you want managers to promote a positive culture, you must model the behaviors you want to see from them. If you take the lead, the rest of the leadership and management team will follow.
Get Personal
Business, as they say, is just business. However, for many of your employees, work is personal. They spend more time in the office than they do at home, and they spend more time with their co-workers than they spend with their own families. They take their work personally, and it is important to recognize them as people.
Learn what motivates employees on an individual level, and whenever possible, tailor interactions, communication and development to those personal preferences. Applying a one-size-fits-all strategy will alienate people. But focusing on the individual's strengths, weaknesses, goals and preferences will have a positive impact on engagement, retention and the bottom line.
Change Your Culture, Transform Your Organization
As a leader, you have the power to mold a culture that promotes engagement, efficiency and profitability. Take steps today to build a positive culture and watch your organization boost its bottom line.