With ever-shifting workplaces, a strong culture has quickly become a coveted aspect for any business.
Having a healthy culture comes with many benefits, the most important being employees who enjoy working for you.
However, getting to this point takes work, and it definitely doesn’t happen overnight. You need a good understanding of what a strong culture is and a process for creating one.
Importance of Creating a Strong Culture For Your Team
The culture of your team defines your business’s identity. A strong culture sets the tone for how everyone views your business, from the inside and out. For your culture to serve your identity in a positive way, you need clear values, goals, etc. Without them, your business’s identity will be lost.
Building a strong culture for your team will result in higher employee retention. When an employee feels like they are an asset to a strong team, they are more likely to stay with the business.
In a team-centered atmosphere, the desire to perform well is heightened. Meaning a strong culture that focuses on teamwork improves employee performance. Because everyone knows what is expected of them, better work gets done.
Characteristics of a Strong Culture
The characteristics of a strong culture vary from business to business, so pinpointing exact traits isn’t easy. However, most cultures place emphasis on:
- Working from a unified point of view
- Communicating in an effective and constructive manner
- Having a clear and defined purpose for its members
- Offering room for employees to learn and/or training in their professions
When you break those traits down, you’ll see effective communication, clear expectations, and growth at the core of nearly every strong culture.
How to Build a Strong Team Culture
Like anything in your business, building a strong culture requires implementing a process and following through with each step.
It takes time, however, when you do spend the time to create a strong culture, you’ll see tremendous improvements in your team.
Define Your Ideal Culture
You and your team need to know what is expected of them. You should take the time to set clear goals and values. Once they are set be sure to make them known. It’s helpful to provide examples of exactly how your team members can implement your values into their work.
Consider creating a 90-day plan for defining and implementing your ideal culture. Use this time to develop training materials and guidebooks along with videos and web-based content for employees to access that outline your ideal culture. Proving resources gives employees on-the-go access to information if there is ever a question.
Hire People Who Fit Your Ideal Team Culture
You build your team. As you hire, make sure the people you are adding will work well with and reinforce your ideal culture. You can do this by explaining your expectations and determining whether or not you think they can uphold them. Send potential hires away with your resources outlining the cultural expectations and when you have them in for an additional interview, ask them if and how they think they will fit into the culture.
The importance of making good hires can’t be stressed enough. Not only does hiring the right people save you money, but your culture is greatly affected by the members of your team. One bad addition can throw off the whole team.
Reinforce Your Ideal Culture
Simply suggesting and explaining your culture isn’t enough. You need to continually show your team that your cultural expectations are important, that you care about building your culture to be strong and successful.
You can reinforce your culture by:
- Conducting regular culture reviews with employees
- Ask them if they see your ideal culture coming to fruition and how you can make improvements to benefit the team.
- Making sure you exhibit and explain the culture you expect your team to demonstrate
- A strong culture is only as strong as its leader. You should be showing your team how to function in your ideal culture.
Be Open to Change
As time goes by, your team changes and your business grows. You’ll start to see a shift in what’s required to maintain a strong culture. As your business and employees grow, make sure you are helping your culture grow with it. What worked a year ago may no longer work in today’s workplace.
A static culture, with no growth and adaptations, opens the door for a weak culture and a business with a loss of identity.
Work With a Trusted Accountant
It takes effort to build a strong culture for your team, however, it is an essential aspect of a successful business. Don’t let refining this process be placed on the back burner. Take some time to build a strong culture that you, your team, and your customers are proud of.If you’re searching for ways to free up time so you can build a strong culture, consider passing your finances on to a trusted accountant like Argento CPA. We will handle the heavy, back-office work and keep your business on track financially, while you improve it culturally.