The culture of your company influences every part of your business such as: attendance, communication (internal and external), accountability, morale, project completion, and employee benefits. The alignment between your team members and the organizational culture is critical for employees to feel endorsed, appreciated, and motivated. Companies that invest in culture often flourish when business is booming and stick together when times get tough.

According to an August 2022 survey done by Glassdoor, 77% of the workforce said that they consider a company’s culture before applying. In that same study, 65% of millennials and 52% of people aged 45 and older care more about the work culture over salary. Times are changing and workplace culture is proving to be just as, or more, important than compensation and benefits.

I cannot stress the next few sentences enough!

Culture starts with the leadership team. Leaders must believe in, establish, and live the organizational culture.

Once established, these beliefs need to be communicated and reinforced through strategic methods, which will ultimately shape employee perceptions, behaviors, and understanding. The following steps have served my clients and myself very well when establishing a new workplace culture:

1. Make the most out of recognition. When everyone on the team recognizes the accomplishments of others, individuals start to see how they’re part of a whole. Encourage the practice of frequent social recognition in addition to monetary recognition.

2. Leaders must be culture promoters. A successful workplace culture lies in the hands of the leadership team. Leaders must not only talk the talk, but they must walk the walk.

3. Spread the culture. The company’s values and objectives are the basis of its culture. However, just as important, is implementing the culture across each area of your business such as HR policies, benefits, and environmental, social, and governance (ESG).

4. Foster team member bonding. Aid collaboration and engagement through team building activities and identify and encourage shared personal interests between employees.



5. Invest in learning and development. Training initiatives, tuition assistance, coaching, and providing employees with new responsibilities are all great ways to show your team that you’re invested in their success.

6. Keep culture in mind from day one. Companies should ask questions focused on cultural fit, hire for culture, and reiterate values during the onboarding process.

Workplace culture has become not only a priority amongst employees, but also serves customers, investors, and competitors as a method for defining what a company is all about.

While working for corporations that were successful in this area, and seeing amazing transformations take place for my clients’ businesses, I can say, without a doubt, that a strong culture must start with everyone at the top level agreeing on cultural priorities.

Leaders in successful organizations live their cultures every day and actively communicate their cultural beliefs to employees as well as prospective new hires. They are clear about their values and how those values define their organizations and determine how the organizations run.