Employees are your greatest asset for your business, but when they genuinely connect to your company history and culture, they can also be your biggest fans. In today’s competitive marketplace, talent is hard enough to find. When your employees promote their positive feelings for your company, it can make recruitment a lot easier.
A company’s leadership team can make or break a company’s culture. When a top-down approach is taken – where you’re forcing the leaders’ vision on the rest of the team – it does not work. Employee buy-in is the key – and when you have it, your employees OWN your culture.
Here are three ways to create culture ownership:
Consistency counts. Set the general framework and let each department put their own spin on the process. Give your team the freedom to make the culture their own. Make sure that everyone participates, which means empowering employees to do what works best for their particular department.
Always be authentic. Create opportunities for genuine connection through whatever events, celebrations, or general fun experiences you put together for your team. When employees have a best friend at work, they are more likely to stay with you. By hosting social activities, you encourage those friendships to develop.
Communicate your company’s story. Make sure your employees know the history, struggles, and successes that got you to where you are today. Keep employees informed so that they want to be a part of the story. Share your mission and vision for where you see the company going – and ask your team members for theirs.
Remember, your culture took a long time to create. It’s not going to change overnight. You don’t “do culture” as some kind of checklist item. There is no silver bullet. But by consistently building shared trust and respect throughout your organization, you’ll bring your company culture to life. Once you give your team members the freedom to own their culture, the rest will take care of itself.
