What is Work Culture?

You may be wondering why you should prioritize work culture, or you may even be questioning ーwhat is workplace culture? Workplace culture, or office culture, refers to the identity of your organization. You can think of it as the personality of your company, and it includes everything from your organization’s mission, beliefs, traditions, and values. 

Since job culture is a representation of your organization, it’s important that you think about your employees’ work culture and create a formal working culture definition for your company. Thus, in the remainder of this article, we’ll explain why work culture is an important part of your go-to-market strategy and include some work culture examples to consider when developing your company’s culture.

Why is Work Culture Important?

A positive organizational culture in the workplace can help you tremendously in achieving your business goals. For instance, culture in the workplace can impact your team’s happiness, productivity, and help you attract the best talent for your organization. 

Here are 5 ways work culture is an important part of your go-to-market strategy:

1. Culture impacts the morale of your team. Organizations that cultivate a positive and supportive culture will more than likely have happier and more productive employees.
2. It helps you retain employees. A positive culture will create a workplace where your employees love coming to work, and they’ll want to stay with your organization for a longer time.
3. A positive work culture makes your company an attractive place to work and helps you find the best people to grow your business. You can use this as a selling point when you talk to candidates about your open roles and show off your awesome culture in job descriptions.
4. By creating a collaborative office culture, you’ll have higher performing teams. Thus, it will give you a competitive advantage over companies with poor workplace cultures.
5. It will help you achieve your company’s mission. If you build a workplace culture that supports your company’s goals, it will help you achieve success.

What Should I Consider When Building My Company’s Culture?

Everything in the workplace has an affect on your work culture, but here are a few places to start when developing an awesome culture:

• Take a look at how your leaders manage their employees. Are they supportive? Do they create an environment that encourages people to collaborate? Each manager’s leadership style should support the development of a positive culture.
• Make sure you build inclusive and equitable recruiting practices. By standardizing your recruiting practices, you can ensure you prioritize diversity and hire the best people to develop your company’s culture. 
• Ensure your employees are supported and can thrive at your company. If you implement processes and an environment in which people thrive, it will help you develop a positive workplace culture.
• Observe how people communicate across your organization. Do people feel comfortable sharing ideas within and outside their teams? This will help build a culture where people are engaged and passionate about their work.
• Does your company’s goals align with your culture? As you define your company’s culture, make sure it works to support your company’s goals. This will help unify your company behind your company’s mission.

Your company’s goals will change over time and culture can be impacted as a result. However, by continuously evaluating and working to develop a great company culture, you’ll build an amazing place to work for years to come. 

Office Culture in a Remote World

Since many companies have embraced remote work, or a combination of remote and in-office work, you may be wondering how to continue developing your company’s culture with a distributed workforce. If you have employees that work remotely, you should reevaluate your processes to ensure they’re still supporting the work culture you’ve defined and envision for your organization.

For example, it’s important to evaluate how people at your organization communicate with one another when they’re working remotely. Are they still able to share ideas? Do they check in frequently enough? 

Furthermore, some people may not feel like they’re not fully supported when they’re working remotely as compared to when they’re working in the office. Thus, you should ensure your employees are adequately supported no matter where they may be working.  

Companies change over time and work culture can be impacted as a result. Thus, it’s critical that you continuously check in on your company’s work culture. This will help you keep any negative aspects from slipping into your work culture and help you maintain an awesome work environment. We understand that gauging your workplace culture can be difficult, but simple check-ins with your employees and workplace environment can go a long way towards building a positive work culture over time.

If you’re wondering how other companies’ work environments have changed or what employees care about in 2021, check out our new Great Rehiring Report. In our report, we include exclusive data and insights from our survey on hiring, layoffs, remote work, employee expectations, and more.