Practical Guide: How to Improve Your Business Culture

Many businesses are so focused on the bottom line that they neglect their company culture.  This can be a fatal mistake, as a Forbes study found that more than 90% of employees believe good business culture is essential at their company, and 92% stated that improving their company culture would increase the company’s value.

To improve your business culture, you must first understand what it is and what values you’re perpetuating in your organization.

What Is Business Culture?

Corporate culture is difficult to define.  It’s generally regarded as the shared values, beliefs, and goals defining a business.  If everyone on the team adheres to the corporate culture, you’ll have a united front working together to achieve your objectives.

In the book Rework, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson write, “Culture is the by-product of consistent behavior.  If you encourage people to share, sharing will become an integral part of your culture.  If you reward trust, then trust will be built into your culture.  If you treat customers right, then treating customers right becomes your culture.”

According to C. Lee Smith, CEO of Salesfuel, business culture is determined by four major factors: who you hire, who you fire, who you promote, and who you discipline.  You will reward the behaviors you want to encourage and eliminate those that contradict your company values.

Why a Strong Culture Matters

A great culture makes a significant difference in sales and profit results.  As I mentioned in a previous blog post, a strong company culture leads to engaged employees who stay with the company and want to see it thrive and grow.  It would be beneficial to explore ways to enhance your business culture, as this can contribute to the longevity of your company.

There are numbers to back this up.  According to the Harvard Business Review, companies that invest in employee experience are four times more profitable than those that don’t.  Meanwhile,

TruePath found that turnover at companies with a poor culture is 48%.  That’s a solid case to improve your business culture. 

A poor culture results in lost work hours due to employees calling in sick, arriving late, leaving early, and taking extended lunches.  Disengaged employees often lack motivation and don’t feel a sense of responsibility for the company’s success or failure.

How to Improve Your Business Culture

It’s essential to be consistent in what you say and do to improve your business culture.  Your team is watching you closely for variations.  Consistently share your core values and clearly define team behavioral expectations to ensure there is no room for misinterpretation.

Bad managers can ruin a business culture.  A Gallup poll found that 50% of U.S. employees have left a company due to a bad manager.  Your management team is responsible for modeling the business culture to the rest of your employees and creating the ideal atmosphere.  Your managers should be caring, supportive, fair, trustworthy, responsive, and accessible.

Invest in management development.  When you develop a manager, you enhance their entire team and the overall culture of your business.  If you don’t have time to build your people, where will you find the time to replace them?

You also have to manage and measure your culture constantly.  Hire only people who are a good fit and quickly remove those who don’t meet your cultural expectations.  Negativity spreads like wildfire in the workplace, so if someone’s not on board with your mission, show them the door sooner rather than later.

Finally, you should trust and empower your employees.  Include everyone in decisions so they can see their impact on the workplace and be a part of the big picture.

Changing your company’s direction may take some time, but investing in a strong company culture is worth it in the long run.  A CEO’s critical responsibility is to foster a quality culture within their business.  Click here and download my free eBook to learn more about what you can do.

Coach Dave