Company culture is a hot conversational topic right now, and it's become more and more important to both employees and employers alike. This is largely due to the impact that the global COVID-19 pandemic had when it started to spread across the world in early 2020. As the pandemic became more and more severe many organizations were thrust into a difficult position. Many organizational leaders and decision makers had to choose if they would continue to operate at a limited and metered capacity, if they would shut down operations for good, or if they would try to transition to remote and mobile operations. Many companies thrived and survived by embracing a remote workforce and mobile workplace culture.

How Company Culture Can Build A Foundation
How Company Culture Can Build A Foundation For Success Pixabay

In all this employment turmoil, however, a large portion of the workforce decided to leave their positions on their own accord. Many people chose to pursue early retirement, freelancing, passion projects, or even startup and entrepreneurial ventures. This mass exodus from the workforce has since been coined the great resignation. In the wake of the great resignation, a significant employment gap was created. There were a plethora of people laid off and unemployed, and an even greater amount of jobs vacant and hiring. However, there was a major disconnect between the work being offered and what employees were looking for.

This brought workplace culture under the microscope, and modern organizational leaders started to realize and pinpoint employee priorities, by then emphasizing these same priorities in the culture of their organization, they were then able to attract and retain high-caliber and diverse talent throughout the entire organization.

"Values are part of what makes a company unique, and they define its individual way of doing things. When they're translated into company culture, strong values help create a pleasant work environment and positive employee experience."

– Genevieve Michaels, Writer, Trello –

How is Company Culture Defined?

There are many different aspects that play into and form a company culture. The first place to look at when setting up a company culture, or trying to understand the culture of a specific company, is at the organizational pillar values. This is because many times, the values that an organization operates with influence and contribute to the culture of the organization as well. For instance, if an organization's top value is innovation, the company culture might prioritize brainstorming, collaboration, and continual improvement. On the other hand, if an organization's top value is empathy, the company culture might reflect this through flexible scheduling, and autonomous roles that experience mostly hands-off management.

"There's no one single aspect that creates a company culture. Rather, it's all of the different little things that come together to build a brand's unique workplace environment."

– Sean Doherty, General Manager, Box Genie –

Other elements contribute to the company culture, too. For instance, the managerial practices that are standardized throughout the organization will undoubtedly play a major role in creating the workplace culture. This is also because it will set the guidelines for how colleagues and coworkers are to communicate and collaborate with one another.

"Culture is about action. A lot of pretty words on a homepage don't mean anything at all if they're never actually realized. This is important for organizational leaders to internalize, because it will help them truly establish a positive workplace culture."

– Cesar Cruz, Co-Founder, Sebastian Cruz Couture –

Essential Elements of Company Culture

When looking to design and establish a strong company culture, it's important to know what's involved. Organizational values were already discussed, but this is really just scratching the surface. There are a wide variety of elements that contribute to an effective, productive, and positive company culture. For instance, developing and maintaining open and transparent lines of communication between employees and leadership within the organization is a great way for a company to build trust and foster internal relationships.

"Communication isn't just important in establishing company culture, it's important in finding organizational success at any level. You have to be able to communicate internally of course, but externally, too. Plus, with everything remote these days, it's just that much more important.

– Kim Walls, CEO and Co-Founder, Furtuna Skin –

Flexibility is another important element in today's modern workplace culture. More and more employees are finding fulfillment in positions and roles that allow them a little bit of autonomy, decision making responsibility, and role-ownership overall. This is also beneficial to employee engagement and creates a more productive workforce overall. When employees experience trust, they often return that trust in kind.

"It makes a lot of sense to give employees a bit of flexibility. If they have a deadline, you shouldn't really care when the work is done, as long as it's before the deadline."

– Karim Hachem, VP of eCommerce, Sunshine 79 –

The Benefits of a Strong Workplace Culture

Employees aren't the only ones who benefit from a strong and well-established workplace culture, though. The organizations benefit from this as well. When the workplace culture is a priority for both the organizational leaders and the employees, it creates a more productive and healthier working environment. People are more willing to openly collaborate and communicate because they aren't as afraid of backlash, ridicule, or retaliation. Additionally, when employees are happy and content with the workplace culture around them, they're much more likely to be hard working, productive, and loyal.

"It is hard to find and retain top-tier-talent right now. The job market is sizzling hot, and talented employees know just how much value they bring to the table. As such, it's really on the employer to meet the employee needs and develop a strong culture that prioritizes employee retention."

– Brianna Bitton, Co-Founder, O POSITIV –

Employee retention is one of the main goals that workplace culture development pursues. This is because turnover is easily one of the most expensive costs that an organization can incur. Therefore, businesses with high turnover rates are much more likely to bleed money regularly. By improving the workplace culture, leaders can effectively reduce the internal turnover rate and save their company loads of money along the way.

"No matter how much you invest in company culture, it won't compare to how much you waste in training, interviewing, employee-hunting, and onboarding if you have a high turnover rate internally. Besides, the more people that quit and leave, the harder it's going to be to find replacements."

– Drew Sherman, VP of Marketing, RPM Freight Systems –

Addressing Problems When They Arise

One pitfall of developing a positive workplace culture is when you bring in an employee who disrupts the ecosystem. If problems between personnel begin to escalate, they need to be addressed with as much urgency as possible. If they're left unaddressed, this can ruin the workplace culture entirely.

"Maintaining the workplace culture is just as important as developing its framework in the first place. You have to monitor the organizational workplace and make sure that the ecosystem stays balanced, so to speak."

– Lindsay Malu Kido, CEO, Empower Pleasure –

We don't always get along with everyone we meet and it would be an impossible task to be liked by everyone. However, empathetic and respectful communications need to be a staple in your organization's workflow if you expect high levels of frequent collaboration between team members. Making sure that everyone who comes on board understands the expectations when it comes to company culture is a good way to make sure you're bringing positive culture contributors onto the team.

"We all know that old saying about one bad apple spoiling the bunch. The same allegory can be applied to your organization's workplace culture. Be diligent and thorough in your hiring process to bring leaders on board who will perpetuate a positive and productive company culture."

– Marcus Hutsen, Business Development Manager, Patriot Coolers –

The Value of DEI

The value of diversity, equity, and inclusion has long been proven in companies. The more diverse the workforce, the more creative the problem solving, the more collaborative, and the more innovative as well. This is true for a lot of reasons but one of the main one's deals with perspective. Different people with different backgrounds, cultures, and experiences think about things in completely different ways.

Not only that, but diverse workplace cultures are often much more inclusive, friendly, productive, and positive.

"Diversity, equity, and inclusion will continue to become more and more important to organizational leaders and decision makers alike."

– Liza Kirsh, CMO, Dymapak –

Especially as the remote workforce continues to cement itself as a staple of the economy moving forward, organizations will have a much easier time sourcing professional talent globally, which means hiring professionals will have an even better chance at finding the perfect candidate for their specific opening.

"Remote work culture can be great. It's pretty much a win-win for everyone involved. Employees seem more engaged and productive, and it's easier for everyone to achieve a healthy work-life-balance.."

– Jeff Goodwin, Sr. Director, Performance Marketing & E-Commerce, Orgain –

A few Final Thoughts on Workplace Culture

There are a ton of different factors that contribute to a workplace culture and by prioritizing the establishment of a positive, healthy, and productive workplace, organizations can reap the benefit of a more engaged, fulfilled, and productive employee workforce.

"Workplace culture is important because it can either work for or against your company's objectives. Company culture is linked to things like employee engagement, happiness, satisfaction, retention rate, productivity, onboarding and more."

– Sam Caucci, Author, 1 Huddle –