The Key Drivers of Company Culture
Red Rocket previously wrote about how to establish a great corporate culture. However, a report from The Alternative Board (“TAB”) contained several actionable and quantifiable points regarding creating a great corporate culture. There were many interesting findings from their survey of small businesses that are listed below.
Summary of Sample Studied
TAB interviewed 100 small-sized businesses to gather the following results. About two-thirds of them were B2B businesses, and one-third of them were B2C firms. They were from a broad range of industries, and professional services (31 percent) in addition to manufacturing (29 percent) comprised the most significant portion. The median age of business 14 was. Their average company size was about 25 employees with more than $2 million in annual revenue. That’s probably real for most people reading this article, whether today or where you envision yourself shortly.
What is Culture and Who Drives It?
When you think of the culture of a company, most people are thinking about the management style (39 percent) as well as the experience of employees (30 percent) and the company’s reputation (18 percentage). The most significant factors are the business owners (45 percent) and executives from the business (23 percent), and employees (21 ratios). A majority of 63% believe that the business owner is the most critical factor here, not employees or executives (which is somewhat unexpected, given that the majority of owners are not always visible in the workplace).
What was the Outcome of a Good Culture?
A positive culture can empower individuals (43 percent), is a great way to improve business performance (25 percent), and encourages collaboration (22 percentage). The benefits include cooperation between employees and management (47 percent) and connecting employees with their customers (24 percent), and creating a more collaborative atmosphere (18 18%). This, in turn, increases productivity (39 percent) and boosts morale (39 percent).
It All Starts With Recruiting
It all begins with securing the right employees that fit into your culture, starting from the beginning (91 percent), and it can be challenging to convince people who are not part of the culture you want to change. When you’re looking to recruit employees, You can determine their compatibility with your culture by conducting personal interviews (91 percent) as well as feedback from employees (64 percent) and observing their interactions with the staff (56 percent) or calling their contacts (49 percent) and hiring initially on a trial basis (43 percent) or listening to their conversations on social media (42 percent) and then having them take an online personality test (37 percent).
. . . And Knowing What is The Most Important to Employees . . .
The employees are motivated by having confidence in their leaders (44 percent) and more transparency regarding essential business issues (21 percent), and greater control over their daily decision-making (21 percent). The top priorities for employees are being happy in their workplace (91 percent), Being supported by their supervisors (90 percent) and having opportunities for advancement (83 percent), receiving opportunities for continuing education and training (80 percent), and working from home (66 percent). In the year of the survey, just 30% of respondents believed telecommuting, or working outside the office, was essential in this case. But that was before COVID, and that count has likely increased in the years since, as individuals become more comfortable working at their homes.
And Not Letting Key Difficulties Get in the Way
The main obstacles and obstacles to driving culture are making sure that you follow through with what you teach (43 percent), making the most of profits and culture simultaneously (34 percent) while trying to please everyone it is nearly impossible (18 18%).
Measuring Culture is Critical to Success
As with all business decisions, it is impossible to control those who don’t know. Therefore, you must evaluate your company’s culture to ensure your culture is evolving toward the desired results. The companies studied with excellent company culture had an average Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 8.4 (out of 10) Based on employees’ feedback about their workplace. The companies with an unfriendly culture scored an NPS as low as 6.2. At the same time, the average business has NPS levels of 7.4. Therefore, if your company’s NPS is less than 7.4 in your tests of your employees, then you probably have an issue with the culture at hand.
I hope you’ll be able to agree that there was plenty of useful information coming out of the TAB survey. Make sure you incorporate the insights into practical strategies in your company.
