Tag Archives: Company Culture

5 Tips for Bringing Your Team Back to the Office

1. Give Employees Their Own Work Spaces.

Try rewarding employees with their own work spaces as opposed to the shared work spaces that are so popular nowadays. The pandemic has created all sorts of uncertainties about touching other people’s stuff.

2. Offer up free lunches.

We know there’s “no such thing as a free lunch” but we’ve seen companies have tremendous success when they offer their employees meals as a gesture of appreciation. Sending your remote employees a voucher for a food delivery app and an invitation to join a team Zoom hang out is a great way to allow your team to interact more casually. When your team is in the office, providing free lunches allows people to connect with each other. We’ve found that this desire for connection is greater than ever since the pandemic began.

3. Create Memorable Moments to Connect

Try and use culture building opportunities as frequently as possible. This is where employers can really get creative. Consider setting up both remote and in-person fun experiences like an Escape Room or a virtual Pub Quiz. Give away memorable gifts, company merchandise, or a welcome back to the office care package so employees feel that their experience is being valued.

4. Provide Gas Cards

Send gas gift cards to anyone who comes into the office on a regular basis. Gas is expensive right now so this is an easy win because it makes employees feel valued for their efforts.

5. Use Social Media to Show Off Company Culture

Make sure your employees are proud of the team that they’re on and feel included. One way to do this is share notable team experiences on your public Social Media channels and in your internal team communications, like a Slack channel or team newsletter. You’ll be able to show the community being built back up in the office and ease the minds of employees still on the fence about returning to the office.

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Need help creating positive Company Culture? We can help with that. Contact us.

Effective Ways to Manage Employees in a Remote Environment: Company Culture

The Danger

Zoom meeting fatigue. Lowered productivity. Ineffective communication. Unmotivated team members. These are all the dangers that occur when teams go remote. Underlying all these symptoms is the larger problem: company culture may be at risk of dying. As teams around the world are planning to stay remote for the foreseeable future, the question on everyone’s mind is: how can you maintain company culture in a remote environment?

How to Avoid

Everything we’ve mentioned so far may sound dire, but we promise there are ways to adapt your company culture so it can thrive even in a remote environment. Some of these tweaks may not alter things overnight, we all have to work together to gradually adapt to our changing world. However, our aim is to help you develop a mindset so you can find creative solutions to kickstart your company culture in these uncertain times.

Our first suggestion is to have meetings with meaning. It makes sense why many people find giant, 20+ person Zoom meetings exhausting—it’s hard to focus, they have to constantly fight to be heard, and technical errors can make meetings run long. Our solution is to get creative, perhaps you can break your team into smaller pods. Then you can keep larger team meetings succinct and smaller pods can break out into separate meetings in which they can feel seen and heard and be given clear instructions. This way, employees can feel more comfortable asking questions and continue building rapport.

Second, never underestimate the power of employee feedback. We know employers are doing everything in their power to maintain culture but blindspots occur despite the best intentions. It may be scary but don’t hesitate to ask your employees about what’s working and what’s not. Their honest feedback can illuminate seemingly small issues, which you can address before they become problematic.

Opportunity

Just because you’re not in the office anymore, doesn’t mean the old office shenanigans can’t still be in play. Some of the goofy and fun things you used to do can be translated into a virtual environment. For example, if you used to buy the employee of the month lunch, send them a meal via a delivery service like GrubHub or Postmates. If managers used to grab coffee with their team members, give them a monthly coffee stipend from Starbucks that they can use to send drinks to their team. When we’re all apart, small acts of care can go a long way. Also, keep having fun! During team meetings, play a game like “Two Truths and a Lie” so you can continue getting to know each other and not have every interaction be solely about work.

Tip

Have fun with it and be easy on yourself. We all have enough going on, especially right now. Bring some good positive energy to the group and take care of your employees. In turn, you’ll continue to have a motivated, hard-working team that enjoys working with one another.

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See how CorpStrat can help you transform your Company Culture. Contact us at marketing@www.corpstrat.com.

Company Culture Matters Most

Company Culture: What it is and Why it Matters

It’s those two words you probably hear often if you read articles on business and management but what is it exactly? Company culture is the personality of a company and the environment in which its employees work. Recent studies have revealed that employees highly value company culture in their decision to stay with-or leave-a company. Therefore, companies with strong culture can, in fact, reduce job turnover.

Retaining employees who are happy and productive is not only good for employee morale, but also for the bottom line. Turnover can be extremely expensive for employers when lost productivity and replacement costs are considered.

According to Frances Frei And Anne Morriss at Harvard Business Review:

“Employees make hundreds of decisions on their own every day, and culture is our guide. Culture tells us what to do when the CEO isn’t in the room, which is of course most of the time.”

Since each company is unique, the way in which you create and build your company culture will vary. However, one constant is that all cultures can be classified as being ‘weak’ or ‘strong’.

Weak Company Culture = Employees accept their responsibilities and cultural duties out of fear of their superiors and harsh policies, and they do things out of impulse.

Strong Company Culture = Employees respect, adjust and adhere to their company’s policies. Employees in this type of culture tend to enjoy working, accept their roles and responsibilities willingly, and try to learn as much as possible.

Developing Values for Your Company’s Culture:

Recognize and reward valuable employee contributions. Recent studies have shown that the top 20% of companies with a recognition-based culture have 31% lower turnover. Also, a large majority of workers believe that recognition is a key factor for them.
Flexibility – 51% of workers believe that a flexible schedule is a factor that significantly drives retention. Some popular ideas are telecommuting, flexible scheduling and PTO policies.
Benefits – There are a variety of employer sponsored programs that encourage employee engagement and increase morale and retention. In addition to your core benefit offerings (medical, dental, vision), try implementing a wellness program, paid parking, and/or transportation reimbursements. There are also many voluntary benefits available such as Life, Short Term Disability, and new trendy offerings such as Identity Theft and Pet Insurance.

These are just a few ways that you can attract, retain, and reward employees and grow your company culture. Today’s workplace is vastly different than it was in the past. Employees care about your reputation as a company and are constantly evaluating employers on their corporate culture. In fact, many workers view cultural compatibility just as important as salary! A positive and strong company culture vastly improves retention as employees who identify with and feel a sense of belonging are happier and are more likely to stay.

With that said, if you could describe your corporate culture in three words, what would you say?

References:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2012/06/13/new-research-unlocks-the-secret-of-employee-recognition/#615d82695276

https://qualityincentivecompany.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/SOAW-2017.pdf

https://hbr.org/2012/05/culture-takes-over-when-the-ce

Company Culture That Attracts Talent You’re hiring! The exciting process of adding someone new to your team is in full force except, as the days pass, you notice the right talent just isn’t biting.

You’ve tried multiple job boards, your job description is on point, not to mention that what you’re offering in terms of pay and benefits are fairly competitive. So, what gives?

If despite all your efforts you’re not seeing an improvement in the quantity or quality of applicants received, it may be time to take a long, hard look at your company’s culture to see if your place of work is, well, a place where people want to work.

Company culture is defined as a company’s core values, practices, goals, expectations and processes. All of these components work together in telling your company’s’ story and vision for the future. It also hints at the type of environment future employees can expect to work in as well as the potential challenges they’ll face.

Your company culture can also signal to potential employees whether or not they can expect to enhance or develop their talents, if there is room for growth or advancement, or if the desire to further their education will be encouraged or rewarded.

“But we’re offering a competitive salary”

That may be, but in today’s market most job seekers consider company culture just as important as the salary or benefits offered. Great company culture also leads to higher retention rates and better performance, something salary alone can not provide.

For those who may be afraid of change, it should be said that having a great company culture is not just some passing fad. In fact, as more and more job seekers (especially talented, tech savvy Millennials and Gen Z) dive into the workforce they do so seeking purpose, value, and leadership from their employers, not just a paycheck.

That is why the company’s who’ve built a great culture (Google, Zappos, and Twitter to name a few) have not only continued to thrive, but why they have so many talented individuals constantly applying to work with them.

Google for example has received 75,000 applications in just one week (Yikes!) While those numbers probably well exceed what your business is hoping to bring in, it does showcase just how important a company’s culture is when it comes to attracting applicants.

If you’re finding it difficult to attract or retain top talent now, it will only become more difficult in the years to come. So if you’re looking to make changes, act fast. You can start by opening a dialogue between leadership and employees. Once you get started down the right path, together you can revisit what’s important, and what your vision is going forward. Once this is done, be sure to get with your marketing team and discuss how you can project your culture online to gain interest and increase your talent pool.

While not every company culture is the same, you can always learn from those who do it right. With that said, here are three companies (other than Google, Zappos, and Twitter) who’ve built a fantastic culture and leveraged it to attract (and retain) top talent.

Beepi

Founded: 2013

Headquarters: Los Altos, CA

Notable Culture Traits: Honesty, Transparency, Equality.

Company Culture That Attracts Talent

If you thought buying groceries from your cell phone was neat, wait until you what you see what you can buy on your phone with Beepi. Established in 2013, Beepi is really shaking up the car world by making it possible to shop for, sell, buy in cash, finance, or lease a car in real time, 100% online. Yes, even from your mobile phone.

Part of what makes the team at Beepi so great is how brutally and refreshingly honest they are. They’re a no-holds-barred style start-up that is completely transparent when it comes to what they expect from their employees and what employees can expect from them. They value each employee as an individual while also encouraging them to work as a team by promoting open and honest communication between all staff members (including executive staff.)

Each employee is encouraged to share and contribute their thoughts and ideas, which gives everyone at Beepi a voice. Beepi is not only inclusive but forthcoming about everything from the work environment potential hires can expect, their vision for the future, but most importantly, how determined they are to keep that atmosphere alive no matter what.

Warby Parker

Founded: 2010

Headquarters: New York, NY

Notable Culture Traits: Community, Creativity, Eco-Friendly

Warby Parker Has A Culture That Attracts Talent

Who would have imagined the eye-wear industry could be so fun?! The founders of Warby Parker did, and that imagination has not stopped. Since their foundation in 2010 they have not only kept their company culture alive, but they’ve kept it fresh by revisiting and expanding upon it in 2015.

Aside from offering boutique-quality glasses for just $95, they’ve also partnered with local non-profits, meaning that for every pair they sell, they’ll also donate a pair to a person in need (how great is that?) Their stores help stir a sense of community too by offering a great selection of books to purchase and by inviting local artists to come in and serenade customers.

Between employee “class trips” and newly formed holidays such as “Wear Your Sunglasses to Work Day” it’s no wonder their employees are all smiles, or why so many applicants are itching to come aboard.

Riverbed Technologies

Founded: 2002

Headquarters: San Francisco, CA

Notable Culture Traits: Persistence, Intelligence, Integrity,

The Company Culture at Riverbed Tech Attracts Talent

Information Technology (IT) companies are notorious for their terrible retention rates, especially when compared to other industries, but not Riverbed Technologies. Most of their engineers have been there 10+ years (allowing them serious bragging rights in the tech world)

Employees describe their fellow techies at Riverbed as “smart, innovative, respectful, and progressive.” Traits that they say have encouraged them to remain focused at work, while also encouraging them to ask questions and continue learning so they can keep up with the pace.

Leadership is said to always be on the move, seeking and acquiring new projects, companies, products and more so the company or those employed never feel stagnant. They really know their talent too, since the majority of their intelligent yet introverted techies are allowed to work remotely.