Why Is Company Culture So Important To Business Success?

For decades, CEOs and senior leaders have struggled with low employee engagement, sub-optimal customer service, poor staff turnover rates and substandard productivity levels.

How have they dealt with this? Well, it’s generally been a case of putting out fires all over the place rather than addressing the burning question: do we have a bad company culture?

There is a very strong link between a strong culture and employee performance that leaders can no longer afford to ignore, with:

• research from the University of Warwick showing that happier employees are 12% more productive 
• companies like Google investing huge amounts of money in employee satisfaction because they recognise the clear connection between happier staff and much-enhanced performance 
• increased performance manifesting itself in up to 21% increased profitability

Organisations can’t improve engagement, retention, and productivity if they have an unhealthy culture. 

So, if company culture is so important to business success, how do companies go about improving them?

What Does A Good Company Culture Look Like?

A good company culture is characterised by the following:

High performance team members As we’ve already demonstrated, healthy organisational cultures are inextricably linked with higher productivity. Why? Because employees will be more motivated and dedicated to employers that invest in their wellbeing and happiness.

Clear vision In short, your vision statement should be what gets everyone pulling in the same direction as one another towards a shared goal. 

Nearly every successful modern organisation has an internal vision that motivates and inspires employees. Disney’s, for instance, is ‘To entertain, inform and inspire people around the globe through the power of unparalleled storytelling, reflecting the iconic brands, creative minds, and innovative technologies that make ours the world’s premier entertainment company.’

Your vision should be a clear and inspiring statement of your organisation’s goals that every employee can fully buy into. It should be laser-focused and outline the company’s goals for growth and success.

Great teamwork Your people are far more likely to work together as teams if you have a  strong culture. A positive culture facilitates social interaction, collaboration and open communication that leads to brilliant results.

Recruiting the right people A strong company culture attracts potential employees. People want to work for companies with a good reputation based on testimonials from previous and current employees, which is why forums like Glassdoor are so influential when it comes to recruitment. 

Employee retention Heard about ‘The Great Resignation’ cutting a swathe through organisations across the planet? The Great Resignation is the ongoing trend of employees voluntarily leaving their jobs, from spring 2021 to the now. Microsoft’s 2021 Work Trend Index says that more than 40% of the global workforce are considering quitting their job in 2021. A PricewaterhouseCoopers survey conducted in August 2021 revealed that 65% of employees said they are looking for a new job, while 88% of executives said their company is experiencing considerably higher turnover than normal.

A great work culture is the only way to arrest the progress of a phenomenon that is costing organisations huge amounts of money. 

Employees are much more likely to stay with employers that treat them well and allow them to achieve great balance – and, just as importantly, inspire them to want to do their best at work every day.

Job satisfaction It’s hardly surprising that job satisfaction and employee retention is higher at companies with a positive corporate culture. Employers which invest in the wellbeing of their employees will be rewarded with happy, dedicated and high performing employees. And this will be reflected on the bottom line of your organisation.

Less stress and more morale Creating and maintaining a healthy organisational culture is guaranteed to greatly boost employee morale. And a great company culture will, by its very nature, significantly reduce workplace stress, which in turn will lead to better collective employee mental health and work performance.

Who’s Responsible For Company Culture?

If you think improving company culture and engaging employees sits with the HR or People department, think again.

The responsibility for improving corporate culture begins and ends with the leaders. With the CEO, MD, People Director, Finance Director, President and everyone else on the senior leadership team. 

They can’t pass the buck. Change must come – and be inspired from – the top. 

The leaders must create a purposeful, positive, and productive work environment for their people; not the other way around. 

Leaders must set the vision and keep the organisation focused on it.

How Do You Set A Company Vision?

As we’ve established, a compelling vision is critical to your company’s success.

A great vision will inspire your people and create the focus, shared purpose and energy to achieve goals.

Your vision should give people clear goals and the motivation to continually pursue them. And it will give you the strategic framework upon which to build plans, goals and objectives; and, in being so, it will be the focal point for all decisions, actions and evaluation.

But setting a vision is easier said than done, which is why the organisational culture experts at Tribe 365 have come up with a formula that allows companies to set visions that inspire success.

Vision Map™ defines the underlying values and beliefs that will focus everybody’s minds on achieving shared organisational goals.

2. Positive behaviours that make employees feel happy and perform at their very best

Recognise And Reward Positive Behaviours

It does so by:

Interested in finding out more about Vision Map™ and how it will help your organisation set the vision for a great work culture that inspires success? Give our team a call on +44 (0) 1325 734 847 or email team@tribe365.co