We’ve all heard about employee perks offered by the goliaths of the country’s happiest workplaces. Google offers free haircuts and dry cleaning, Salesforce pays workers to volunteer, and there’s an on-site nap room at Zappos. With all the buzz, it’s easy to assume that a healthy company culture is only relevant to businesses flush with cash and a revolving door of eager new talent.
Not so, says the growing research about company culture. Even in small and mid-sized businesses, and even on a budget, putting an effort into workplace culture makes a
huge impact on employee turnover, vendor relationships and customer loyalty.
At Breeze Thru Car Wash in Cheyenne, Wyo., Operations Manager Justin Salisbury and his team invested seven months into developing what they’ve termed their “organizational identity,” which defines clearly for all employees the company’s vision, mission, values, goals, customer and product.
“Now, our identity is a big part of training,” Salisbury said. “We use it to make decisions when clear answers aren’t forthcoming and to hold people accountable, and we test it regularly for recalibration. Clarity is power, and with clarity people become more confident and positive in any situation. Now, we have 120-plus people thinking and behaving as a team.”
CULTURE HAPPENS
Even owners who’ve given little thought to company culture know plenty about what makes a good workplace. They can name their best and worst bosses and recall jobs they left despite clear reasons to stay ,and jobs where they stayed despite clear reasons to leave. These experiences all inform a leader’s values, which, when clearly defined and translated into policies, make up a company’s culture.
But a company’s culture is like DNA — it’s there no matter what. Often, business leaders don’t take the time to evaluate or define the culture of their organizations, and the consequences can be serious.
“Some entrepreneurs make the mistake of leaving it all to chance,” said Chris Cancialosi, partner and founder of gothamCulture, a management consulting firm. “A culture is going to develop over time as your team has collective experiences. The question is, will that culture help or hinder your business strategy?”
Some employers undermine workplace culture by failing to clarify for team members their ideal customer experience or explain how to deliver it.
“Setting expectations, training employees, equipping them with the tools they need to do the job and providing immediate feedback are all critical,” Cancialosi said.
Early in Breeze Thru’s culture development, Salisbury and his team made a critical misstep. They made top-down decisions to improve the workplace without consulting frontline members. They learned their lesson fast.
“It’s generally those at the front lines who need to have the most clarity since they’re the ones engaging with the customers most,” Salisbury said. “We learned to bring everyone into the choices we made to improve company culture. If we had a do-over, we would have encouraged more inclusion from the get-go to gain more buy-in from our front-line workers.”
HAPPY TEAM, HEALTHY PROFITS
There’s plenty of evidence linking a thriving culture to a robust bottom line. Businesses listed on list perform nearly twice as well as comparable companies. In these workplaces, workers trust their managers, take pride in their work, enjoy and feel safe with coworkers and know their contributions will be acknowledged.
“Differentiating and staying competitive is linked to the ability to provide a more delightful experience to the customer,” Cancialosi said. “Disengaged employees are much less
likely to expend discretionary energy delivering an exceptional customer experience, which reduces your potential competitive edge.”
So, how does a company improve its culture? According to Great Place to Work, a research company that evaluates workplace fitness, it’s less about easy giveaways than
building camaraderie, which is a major driver of employee retention.
And camaraderie can be a lot easier to foster in a small company than a big one. Small companies adapt more flexibly and offer greater opportunities to familiarize workers with
every part of the business. A smaller company means a lower bill, too, when throwing a party or springing for lunch.
In a robust workplace, not only are team members offered opportunities for fellowship, but they’re also on the same page when it comes to the business’s big-picture goals.
“In nine out of 10 businesses, there’s a disconnect between what’s desired and what is,” Salisbury said. “If you operate a business, create a list of questions to ask every
member, from new hires to most senior, then make your next moves based on the feedback you receive.” With all the evidence, it’s easy to make the connection between flagging growth and a dispirited team. In Salisbury’s experience, there’s no divorcing the two. “You can’t thrive until every employee’s perception of the business is consistent,” he said.
And culture doesn’t only affect employees and customers – it impacts vendor relationships, too. Conveying the ideal customer experience, treating challenges as opportunities for improvement, communicating clearly and asking for feedback all increase vendor investment.
“A business is all about its relationships,” Cancialosi said. “At the end of the day, the relationships you build with your stakeholders help to build social capital that you can borrow from when you really need to – provided you’re willing to lend some on occasion as well.”
BOOST YOUR WORKPLACE CULTURE
When it comes to putting some brains and brawn into improving culture, there’s no time like the present. The following strategies earn the gold seal of approval from culture experts and leaders.
Now that you know there’s room for improvement, gather your leaders and ask for their insights, then come up with a shared strategy for improving workplace culture together. When all leaders have a voice, they’re all committed to success.
Every business has an origin story and small businesses have the best ones, full of bad breaks, good luck and near misses. Is your business’s story an integral part of your training process, or is it just water-cooler chatter? A good story told well can inspire greater buy-in from your team.
Employees have stories, too. They’ve had experiences at other jobs, and they can share the good, the bad and the ugly. Solicit feedback during training or regular check-ins, or convene a task force that empowers employees to formulate workplace-improvement recommendations.
At Zappos, all employees, regardless of division, spend hours manning the phones, even during the high-stress holiday season. Foster a team spirit and greater business-wide
understanding by giving all employees hands-on experience on the floor. No exceptions, even for the bigwigs.
There’s no question that hard work is often driven by raises and bonuses. But there are myriad ways and reasons to remind workers of their value. For workers who show creativity and quick thinking, you might offer increased responsibility; for workers who show loyalty or innovation, you might offer priority parking or flexible scheduling.
Most managers have a few ways to let their workers know how they’re performing, but who tells management? Many companies conduct “stay” interviews – the inverse of exit
interviews – in which employees are asked to evaluate their satisfaction with the work and offer suggestions for improvement. Even if an issue isn’t immediately solvable,
employees who feel they’ve been heard are more loyal.
