Company culture is hugely important. In fact, 94% of executives and 88% of workers believe that company culture is important to business success, and Growth Engineering are 100% advocates of this.
We believe that company culture influences every part of your business. From staff retention to productivity, to decisions made at the very top; company culture is at the very heart of success.
Additionally, more and more businesses are going fully remote.
But, how do you maintain your core values in a remote or hybrid working environment? How do you sustain that all-important office banter and colleague chemistry?
Firstly, What is Company Culture?
Put simply, your company culture could be considered the personality of your organisation.
It’s a bit like a country; each has its own unique nature stemming from a variety of factors. This could be the food, the history, the scenery and more.
It’s the same for a business. Elements can vary, but common factors shared by most businesses include:
- Work environment
- Business mission
- Company traditions
- Strength of employee companionship
- Core values
- Ethics
- Expectations
- Communal goals
Why is Having a Healthy Company Culture Important?
Company culture is integral to success for two main reasons:
1. Firstly, Company Culture Has an Impact on Employees
A recent study found that happy employees are 13% more productive. Naturally, better overall company culture will make people feel happier during their working hours.
Research from Salesforce found that employees who feel their voice is heard are 4.6 times more likely to feel empowered to perform their best work.
2. Secondly, Company Culture Helps Build Your Employer Brand
Building a strong company culture is the best way to earn a reputation within your industry as a great place to work.
In fact, 89% of employees who work for companies in which managers are supportive of well-being initiatives are more likely to recommend the company as a good place to work. It’s nice to be nice.
Companies that Rock Company Culture!
Need some perfect company culture examples? Well, roll right up! We’ve selected three companies with a world renowned company culture.
1. Google
Google’s official motto used to be ‘Don’t Be Evil,’ and when it comes to company culture, it shows. Employee perks include working for however long you like and when you like. Their vibrant offices are filled with ‘nap-pods,’ slides and game-consoles.
They also pride themselves on collaboration. They have what’s known as a ‘Googler to Googler’ programme, through which employees can build their soft skills. Extracurricular activities such as kick-boxing are also on the programme!
2. Innocent
The savvy smoothie guys have company culture stamped all over them! Their quirky London office boasts a large communal space that could well have been decorated by Willy Wonka himself.
In this area, there’s everything from ping pong tables to table football to picnic booths and more. Office space aside, every team has a budget specifically for extra training, so each member can skill-up whilst on the job.
They offer yoga classes, massages and encourage sabbaticals. Furthermore, Innocent offer to pay for scholarships every year to three lucky team members. And if that wasn’t enough, employees get breakfast provided for free too!
3. Growth Engineering
We couldn’t write this section without mentioning the company culture at Growth Engineering! Our mission is to ‘rid the world of dull online learning,’ and that statement of intent is something that reflects in the workplace too.
Our old Windsor office, for example, had gaming consoles, monthly challenges and a bookcase chock-a-block with inspirational reading materials for when our staff wanted to chill.
More importantly, employees are offered a flexible working schedule, remote working opportunities, regular one-on-ones, personal development and much more.
How to Promote Company Culture Whilst Remote Working
Your company culture is not just about gimmicks like ping pong tables and kooky decor, it’s also about:
- Meaningful workplace relationships
- Considerate and understanding management
- Alignment with the business mission
- Ensuring your staff have a healthy work/life balance
- Creating a sense of purpose
As such, company culture doesn’t just happen between the four walls of a building.
More than 70% of people work remotely at least once a week, a number which is only set to rise. There are some challenges you may encounter when working remotely. However, we’re strong believers that company culture can flourish wherever you are. Here are some ways to help make this happen!
1. Populate your Social Stream
Our learning technologies include a social feed, much like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. Social media sites are natural hubs for gathering a community together.
Why should work be any different? Anyone added to the community can post videos, music, articles, ideas and even terrible jokes (our team is great at that!).
You can create community admins that are designed to get the conversation flowing. For example, one of our Fortune 500 clients has a community manager. They interact with other users and stimulate effective social learning conversations.
Your community manager can play a number of different roles. For instance, they could act as an empathy and wellness guru that provides support or a reporter that issues weekly round-ups!
2. Start a Virtual Club
The social side of office-based working is key. Water cooler moments, special clubs, coffee catch-ups… you name it. These social interactions provide relief from workplace pressures and a way to feel closer to your colleagues.
Luckily, this functionality can be replicated on learning technology solutions by using social Clubs!
For instance, you could create a ‘New Starters’ Club to help welcome newcomers and support the onboarding process.
Around 70% of companies report using some sort of online onboarding process and this number is only set to keep growing. Great onboarding can improve employee retention by 82%. Unfortunately, a shocking 88% of companies fail to onboard well.
Need some more inspiration? Perhaps you could create a ‘Product Club’ to ensure your employees have the knowledge they need to deliver excellent sales and marketing experiences.
You may even want to create a dedicated social Club to encourage after work networking and workplace comradery.
Clubs give employees from all over the world a chance to connect over important topics and provide a forum for social learning experiences.
3. Video Call
It wasn’t that long ago that video conferencing was something only seen in Bond films, Back to the Future II and The Jetsons. Nowadays it’s a staple of work life. Video conferencing apps such as Zoom and WebEx have made video streaming incredibly easy over the past decade.
Stream a video call with your team and you’ll get the benefits of instant Q&A’s and face to face interaction from staff based all over the world. From meetings to training, to general catch-ups; video calls are hugely engaging.
In fact, 98% of people say that video conferencing helps build relationships in and out of work.
Did you know that with Growth Engineering LMS you can integrate your conferencing software, send invites to calls and add them to your learners’ calendars?
4. Gamify your Platform
Gamification is a tool that can be used to help learners become the best versions of themselves. It can also be used to help your learners align with your business mission.
A by-product of gamification is that it introduces healthy competition! This is helpful, as one out of every two colleagues benefits from workplace competition.
You can use your learning management system to award virtual Badges and Experience Points for anything from passing probation to being extra vocal on the social wall. These are displayed on the platform Leaderboards, so you can see exactly how well each learner is performing.
5. Create an Experts Area
An SME or subject matter expert can have competence in any subject. It can be incredibly specialist, or as broad as you like. It also doesn’t necessarily have to be related to their job titles.
The simplest way to demonstrate what an SME does is to give examples. Here are just a few examples of different SMEs that you can designate:
- Matt is a Head of Product. However, he’s also experienced in project management from start to finish. Do you need some advice on how to delegate tasks for a new project? Then you should ask Matt!
- Delilah is a Content Creator. She’s also in charge of your company’s social media channels. Consequently, she knows what media formats your audience engage with the most and the best times to publish a new Tweet. If you need social media advice, you know that you need to shoot Delilah a message.
- Gary is Head of HR. He’s known for being a whiz with Excel spreadsheets. Your manager asks you to create a spreadsheet to display recent metrics but you’ve never created one before. The best thing to do in this situation would be to seek Gary’s guidance.
Although they seem minor, these special interactions all contribute to fuelling connections and improving your company culture.
6. Keep your Company Mission Alive
When everyone’s apart from each other, it’s still important to keep your mission in mind. It’s like when the Scooby-Doo gang split up to search for the ghoul; they’re all still laser-focused on the task at hand.
Not to sound too David Brent, but without everyone rowing in the same direction, you’re never going to reach your destination.
So how do you keep your company mission alive when you’re all working from home?
You could use your social wall to post daily reminders. Or, you could create praise Badges for staff who are working particularly hard on your company’s mission. Perhaps, you could even request that each team member posts one weekly task they’ve accomplished in line with company objectives.
Final Words
Company culture is integral to the success of a business. It’s what keeps the machine turning. It’s the oil to the squeaks. It keeps staff happy, which in turn increases staff retention and productivity.
It helps work towards your overall mission, your communal goals, and brand values. Thankfully, remote working doesn’t mean you have to lose a single drop of business personality! With advances in technology and the use of gamification, company culture can thrive just as much as it would in an office… dare we say it… maybe even more…
One thing’s for sure, you have to ensure your team is updated with your latest training content, wherever they’re based. Download our new Training Checklist here and make sure you’ve got it all covered!
