Corporate culture describes the work environment of a business or organization. Just as a society has its own set of rules, values, beliefs and taboos, so do corporations, businesses and organizations. Creating a strong corporate culture can benefit a business or organization because it encourages cohesiveness among the employees and builds structure, resulting in a more successful work environment. The best way to create a strong corporate culture is to make sure you have good leadership, formal policies and procedures in place, strong communication on all levels of the business, rewards for the high achievers and healthy employee participation by encouraging suggestions and feedback.
Your first step in creating a strong corporate culture is to lead by example. You, as the owner or executive of the company, need to be a strong leader. This also means that you want to hire other managers, supervisors, executives and leaders for the business or organization that are knowledgeable, well-respected, skilled and able to motivate employees in a positive way.
A strong corporate culture also has formal policies and procedures in place. Typically, these policies and procedures are in writing and distributed to existing and new employees when they are hired. This gives each employee a clear vision and guide as to what rules they need to abide by while working at the company.
Some corporate cultures are more laid back than others. while others are more formal. Which type of corporate culture you choose to create is up to you. For example, one mortgage lender installed pool tables and video game machines on each floor of its building. Employees were permitted to take breaks to play these games on breaks in order to relieve some of the stress of the job. This is more of a laid back corporate culture than most organizations, but employees seemed to feel appreciated by their employer because the employer acknowledged the difficulty and stress level of their job and provided a way for them to relieve the stress.
Once you decide the corporate culture you want to create and put the policies and procedures in writing, you then need to communicate this across all levels of the organization. Enforcement of the culture should be fair and equitable, so everyone in the organization needs to know what is expected of them so they can abide by it.
Strong corporate culture also typically comes from eliciting employee feedback, empowerment and engagement. When you ask employees what they think and then implement their suggestions and feedback to improve the business, this sends an important message to employees that you respect and care about them and what they think. This can create a cohesiveness among employees and between the employees and the employer as well.
