Does Company Culture Affect Your Employees? | Aparna Sharma | Consulting Editor | The People Management
They say reality is a matter of perception, and it’s especially true when it comes to a company’s culture. Company culture can be described as an organization’s brand or personality; it’s what you believe in and stand for, and what makes your company unique. Company culture has everything to do with how existing employees, prospective employees, customers, and the public perceive your organization.
Company culture is powerful: it can impact sales, profits, recruiting efforts and employee morale, either positively or negatively. A great company culture attracts people who want to work or do business with the company. It can inspire employees to be more productive and positive at work while reducing turnover. It can even act as your best recruiter, attracting qualified candidates who want to work for your company.
Let’s look at three aspects of company culture’s impact on employees:
1. Impact on Employee Performance
How does company culture impact individual performance? To provide the biggest competitive advantage, an organization’s culture must be strong, widely communicated and reinforced. Values and Beliefs must be shared by all employees.
In a strong culture, employees feel valued. They enjoy at least some control over their jobs, instead of feeling powerless. Whether it’s by working from home, choosing their projects or trying out a new role, employees that feel valued and can make decisions, achieve a higher level of performance.
Strong company cultures also give employees opportunities to grow. Offering promotions, career development programs or extra training can keep employees motivated – which in turn, improves performance. When everyone is in it together, they will all put forth the extra effort to achieve organizational goals.
2. Impact on Employee Happiness
As the economy continues to recover from the pandemic, the job market is showing steady improvement. That means businesses could start to see more turnover, as employees seek greener pastures.
However, positive company culture can ensure that employees remain satisfied with their jobs and loyal to the organization. This can be extremely beneficial in a competitive hiring environment. People are much more interested in staying on with a company culture that promotes flexibility, supports employee development and offers work-life balance.
Improving employee satisfaction through a strong and supportive company culture can reduce recruiting, hiring and training expenses while improving morale and increasing profits.
3. Impact on Employee Engagement
Here are a few ways that company culture can impact employee engagement –
Communication: In companies with good communication practices, employees know their opinions and ideas are welcomed. When employees feel heard, they don’t carry the resentment that can lead to absenteeism, negative morale and termination. Communicative company culture also leads to greater participation, creativity, and innovation.
Safety: Organizations that value employees emphasize safety. A culture of safety becomes ingrained, and employees are more mindful and engaged when performing their duties.
Collaboration: Rather than an “us vs. them” approach, collaborative companies promote autonomy, decision-making, and teamwork. Employees are given opportunities to contribute, placed in roles in which they can succeed, and offered opportunities to build meaningful relationships with managers and co-workers.
Growth: Cultures that foster employee development and growth give workers something to work toward and look forward to. Such cultures prevent boredom and job stagnation while keeping things exciting and interesting.
Once employees are hired, trained and oriented to the workplace, they either feel supported and energized or undervalued and frustrated. When employees feel valued, they are more involved, enthusiastic and engaged.
Company Culture is more important than ever
In today’s highly competitive business environment, everything from sales to recruiting becomes more challenging. One way to make it all easier is by being a company that people want to do business with and work for. Smart organizations know that strong, positive company culture is one of their most important assets.