What is company culture?

Sometimes it’s hard to unpick what gives a company its special spark. Company culture can feel like a vague and slightly nebulous concept. The usual combination of factors that define a company’s culture can be along the lines of values, beliefs, interactions, behaviors, and attitudes that are observed in the workplace. One thing is clear, work culture massively influences the success of any business and can impact recruitment and retention. With this in mind, it’s important that you don’t underestimate your own company culture.

Here is some food for thought; “56 percent of employees say company culture is more important than salary when it comes down to job satisfaction.”

Although this fact makes interesting reading, there’s a good chance you’ve already felt the power of work culture yourself. Unless you’re starting your first job, you’ll have walked into a business before and instinctively know whether it feels right or wrong for you. This is important on a number of levels. For tips on how to improve your company culture, check out our article.

Here are some top five reasons why you should take care of your own company culture.

1. To Attract Talent

From the moment a company begins its recruitment process, candidates are continually thinking about their cultural fit. some 77% of people say they will take a company’s ethos into account before applying to work there. This means it makes sense for businesses to outline and define their cultures clearly, so talent can find the right business and vice versa.

A mismatch of a new hire and a bad company culture can prove a costly mistake for employers. If you hire someone and they immediately feel uncomfortable in the workplace they’re much more likely to leave early on which means your company will have wasted time, money, and resources employing someone who doesn’t fit in the company than paying attention to the culture and employing someone who does fit the bill and is more likely to blend in nicely. Getting it right the first time is a win-win situation.

2. To Engage Employees

When your employees enjoy being in their work environment, they’re likely to be focused and engaged in their work. One study found that employees who are happy at work say they’re “on task” 80% of the time. On the other hand, disengaged employees report being engaged only 40% of the time. What this means in reality, is that disengaged workers are doing the bare minimum in their roles and lacking attachment, respect, and loyalty for your business. This has big implications for productivity and can prove costly.

3. To Retain Staff

A positive work culture doesn’t just attract the right employees, it encourages them to stay. In one study, 63% of respondents confirmed that a company’s culture was a mitigating factor when it came to remaining in their job. In short, it’s clear that higher levels of job satisfaction and happier workers mean low employee turnover. The tricky part is creating that feel-good factor and making sure it’s maintained through day-to-day operations.

When a business values company culture from management down, it will work to foster an environment where people want to be. Common things that make employees want to leave are sexism, bullying, the acceptance of mediocrity, immaturity, lack of team spirit, direction, or drive. Alarmingly, one in five British workers has quit a position due to toxic workplace culture.

4. To Increase Staff Happiness

One recent study scientifically proved that happiness is one of several important keys to a company’s success. Happy workers are more productive workers. In fact, they’re 12% more productive than their more discontented colleagues. The same study claims that when Google focused on employee happiness, productivity increased by a joyous 37%.

Conversely, unhappy employees are a drain on organizations. They’re more likely to feel stressed and fatigued, with the most miserable workers taking ten times more sick leave than their happier teammates. It can also foster a negative working environment for their colleagues, creating a ripple effect of discontent throughout the organization.

Making your employees happy starts with understanding what they want. Create a culture that cares for them, and they will care about your business.

5. To Add To The Bottom Line

As we said above, happy workers are productive workers, and that means culture is inherently linked to the bottom line. Havard Business review says “Happy salespeople produce 37% greater sales”, Forbes say “Good company culture increases revenue by 4%.” So there you have it, it’s time to look at your company culture.