All firms have corporate cultures. The difference is, that some firms have cultures that are significantly stronger than others, that have the potential of exerting a powerful effect, not only for the employees, but on the overall performance of a company. Research has highlighted that the influence of a powerful company culture may be even greater for a company's success than other factors such as strategy, organizational structure, and management systems.
According to James L. Heskett, culture can "account for 20-30% of the differential in corporate performance when compared with ‘culturally unremarkable’ competitors.”
A great company culture not only attracts better talent to a company but also ensures the retention and engagement of those great employees, which defines your organization's internal and external identity.
What's in this post?
- How Can Good Company Culture Be Defined?
- Large Companies with Good Company Culture
- Small Companies with Good Company Culture
- Creating a Better Company Culture with Artificial Intelligence
How Can Good Company Culture Be Defined?
Company culture isn't just about taking perks to new highs. Sure, having a pool table, free meals, and company parties are in the mix of what can make the corporate culture better. But the success and overall health of a company, its employee, and customers, is deeply rooted in the relationships, support systems, and environment that a company creates.
One of the biggest lessons learned by companies is the importance of encouraging a work environment that fosters positivity, morale, and motivation. Teamwork and collaboration are essential skills in order for companies to unleash creativity, as well as nurture innovation that has the potential to set organizations ahead with a competitive edge.
When employees have trustworthy and personable managers, it builds this motivation and cultivates a workplace culture where employees feel inspired and take joy in their work. Trust also increases loyalty and decreases stress levels and hostility in the work environment.
Large Companies with Good Company Culture
IBM
As a major technology firm in the global market, much of IBM's success has been contributed to the way it aligns its organizational culture with its business goals for leadership.
IBM's organizational culture of THINK derives from Thomas J. Watson Sr.’s efforts to unify four separate companies into one, with a solid platform built from the culture of thinking to ensure long-term success.
IBM's corporate culture encompasses elements such as radical thinking, dedication to every client's success, innovation that matters, trust, and personal responsibility in all relationships. IBM makes sure that these key values are not only known to its employees but ensure that it has a major influence on the company’s development of operations.
With such high regard for corporate culture, IBM has a considerable competitive advantage as they are able to motivate employees to creatively approach problems and challenges.
Zappos
Zappos is a further example of an organization that uses its strong company culture to provide structure and control, without relying on stifling formal bureaucracy which can dampen motivation and innovation.
Zappos is an American online shoe and clothing retailer based in Las Vegas, United States. Unlike other shoe retailers, this company places customer-centricity at its core. They thank their success to having a clear foundation and making sure that their employees all know what their values are, regardless of their role.
They ensure this by integrating a mandatory deep immersion training program for all employees regardless of their future role, all new hires have to spend at least 30 hours on this training during their first four weeks. This ritual ultimately allows the new team to experience Zappos' culture at its best: working at the Customer Loyalty Team.
Southwest Airlines
It's not often that you can think of an airline that gives great customer service - flight cancellations, booking, and refunding can be a nightmare when dealing with airlines. However, Southwest Airlines are known for its great customer care, and is an example of how employees who are convinced of a larger common goal are people who are excited to be part of a larger purpose.
Southwest Airlines' continuous focus on delivering exceptional company culture to its employers and customers has proven its worth - from 44 consecutive years of profitability to being the number one airline with the lowest number of customer complaints; its motto of "putting employees' happiness first" has demonstrated strong business results for this airline.
Small Companies with Good Company Culture
Masabi
Masabi is a software company based in London, that provides mobile ticketing solutions to the transport industry. With its mantra #LoveWhatYouDo, this company stresses that its products are just as important as the people who build the products. Therefore, they truly embody the culture of collaboration, innovation, and communication.
They do this by completely eradicating the traditional hierarchical management model, and instead putting emphasis on social engagement, team meetings, and lunches and creating an environment where all employees can add in their ideas.
With this blend of management and self-governance, employees are able to achieve a healthy focus on results, have high levels of employee engagement, and maintain a good work-life balance.
Propellernet
Propellernet is a small company whose name has been consistently mentioned as a top UK place to work by the Great Place to Work Institute for a while now - for the 5th year in a row in fact.
This Brighton-based marketing agency credits much of its success to its positive company culture and staff support network they have achieved. So what is their winning formula to achieve such a highly rated company culture?
Unlike companies that focus solely on the success and results of the organization, health, and well-being are the first and foremost priority for Propellernet. Managers are committed to the development of their employees, and focus their efforts on constantly challenging and inspiring their employees - in fact, they offer the option for staff to take up to 12 days a year to learn something new in order to encourage creativity and development.
This emphasis on self-development (as well as running frequent well-being check-ins for employees) not only encourages employees to try something new and work on personal projects but also reflects on their attitude and motivation towards the company's work.
Creating a Better Company Culture with Artificial Intelligence
Despite the clear advantages of a strong company culture, and the fact that compassionate workplaces perform better than others, building an attractive company culture that embodies organizational values is not an easy task: only 31 percent of HR
Despite the clear advantages of great company culture, only 31 percent of HR leaders believe their companies have successfully created the strong culture they should have to drive their business to growth and success.
How can AI be put into action, smart AI can tackle productivity loss, employee churn, and burnout that can cost businesses hundreds of millions of dollars a year. But investing in your people isn’t just good business. When done responsibly through AI, laying the foundation for a compassion-first workplace culture is critical in 2021 and beyond.
As companies are developing plans for more work-from-home options beyond the pandemic, talent acquisition leaders and recruiting staff are faced with the challenge of identifying top talent with a different strategy.
Artificial intelligence and data-driven technology create a way for a company to quickly and efficiently identify qualified candidate profiles to fill open positions, without compromising on the quality of hire and ensuring a positive candidate experience.
Retorio's video-based personality assessment uses artificial intelligence to help organizations find candidates with the right personality, talent, and skills.
Such talent acquisition tools like Retorio automate the myriad workflow steps in the recruiting process with distinct inputs and outputs like screening, sourcing, and assessment to ultimately help recruiters find talent with ease in this new era of working.
