Company Culture

Company culture is one of the most important pieces of any successful business.  Your business will only be as good as the people who work there.  People, correction, great people, make a company great.  But in order to keep these great people, the company has to have a great company culture.  Culture drives a business to be successful because a great environment for an employee will make them want to achieve more to help the business grow.  Employees spend about 25% (and sometimes more) of their lives at work, so it means a lot to the employee when the environment is a warm inviting place to park themselves for eight hours a day.

Culture is created through a conscience effort by ownership, C level managers, upper management, and supervisors/managers to give their employees the tools to be successful.  Also, having an environment that welcomes open communication and honest feedback is extremely important too. 

One of the ways businesses can create a great culture is by doing something I call CCAC.  The first C is Clarity, the second C is Communication, the A is for Action and the third C is Consistency. 

Clarity – I see lots of businesses where employees are not really sure what is expected of them.  This is because job descriptions and/or procedural manuals are not created.  So, there is confusion on the employees’ part of what is really expected of them and how to go about doing their job effectively.  Providing that clarify to your employees is extremely important.  Many times, owners or people in leadership are unconsciously competent.  Meaning they do their job so well, they don’t have to even think about it.  It comes so naturally, they don’t have to think about executing.  The challenge is most of your employees are not in this category.  They need…Clarity, so your employees know what is expected of them in their daily job duties.  Make sure you know with 100% certainty what you want from your employees so they can deliver the results you want.  You can’t expect your employees to know what you expect of them if you haven’t giving them clarity.  

Communication – Once you have that clarity about what you expect from them, clearly communicate what you want them to do.  I have sat in on many performance reviews as an advisor.  The one thing that seems to be a common thread during these reviews, is when an employee says, “when were you going to tell me you wanted me to do that”? This is why communication is so important.  You can’t really give poor reviews or make judgements about whether an employee is a poor performer, if you really haven’t told them what constitutes poor performance.  Or more importantly, what constitutes great performance.  Clearly communicate to them what you want and what you expect to be considered a great employee.  Your employees will appreciate knowing how you are keeping score.  

Action – Now that they know, hold everyone accountable to take action.  Accountability is a huge part.  Everyone needs to be accountable to take action to achieve the results they were hired to do.  You are paying them to do a specific part of your business function and it’s okay to expect a return on investment for the income you give them.  Give feedback regularly and help the employees make course corrections along the way.  

Consistency – Having consistency is truly important.  Your employees are looking to you to apply the same set of rules across the board.  Of course, you will have employees that stand out over others, but showing consistency with all your procedures will show your employees that you don’t show favoritism and favoritism can crush a company’s cultural.  You need to be consistent too.  If you expect someone to do something, you too need to be consistent with your actions to show you do what you expect from your people. 

Take the time to really sit down and figure out what you want for your business, or your department, or your division or whatever else you manage.  If you as an owner, C level person, or manager/supervisor know what your goals and objectives are, you can create the plan and what actions will be necessary to fully execute that plan.  The mind is a goal seeking device, it needs to know what you want to make it happen.  The same is true for your employees, give them a target to shoot for, and you will be amazed at the results they will give you.  Give your employees a chance to prove what they are truly capable of.  People will rise to meet your expectations of them.  Providing that initial clarity will be a huge first step to making your Organization a first class place to work and the first step to having an amazing company culture. 

Written by Glen Drouin, founder and owner of Harbor HR, LLC.  Glen has 13 years experience working with his Father’s business and 20 years experience as an HR and business consultant. You can reach Glen at 916-293-2116 or e-mail at glen@harborhr.com .