Creating a culture within your company isn’t something you can just do once and be done with it. This is why it’s important to have a system in place that helps you keep track of the different things you want to work on so that you can continually improve upon them.
If you don’t already know what kind of culture you want to cultivate within your organization, here Albert Houllou, President and Chief Executive Officer of F&E Trading LLC shares five tips that can help you create the right corporate culture for your employees.
Talk about the changes you want to see
According to Albert Houllou, one of the best ways to get your employees engaged in your company culture is to let them know what kind of changes they can expect to see within the organization.
If you have employees who are interested in seeing their role expanded or the company switch towards a more remote format, it’s important to let them know. Likewise, if you want to move towards a more collaborative environment, let your people know. These types of conversations can also help you identify people who may be open to certain changes, so that there isn’t a communication gap that can cause confusion. You can also talk about what you want to avoid changing. For example, some companies make the mistake of trying to keep their culture exactly the same as it was at their last location. While this may seem like an easy fix, it can often result in a culture that doesn’t make the best use of the time that people have at work. If you want to avoid falling into this trap, you should talk about what you don’t want to change in your corporate culture.
Hold regular team meetings
In Albert Houllou’s opinion, one of the best ways to create a culture where people feel like they have the opportunity to voice their thoughts, feelings and expectations is to hold regular team meetings. Hold these meetings in person if possible, but if it’s impractical to do so, try to do so at least once a month. At these meetings, try to avoid giving answers or responding to questions with canned responses. Instead, try to encourage your team members to speak openly about the things that are on their mind. If you’re only meeting with your top leaders, it can be tempting to hold all of your team meetings from a position of power. However, you’ll miss out on some valuable insights if you don’t include your employees in the decision-making process.
Celebrate small wins with your employees
Based on his experience, Albert Houllou indicates that one of the best ways to create a culture where people feel a sense of accomplishment is to celebrate the small wins that your employees achieve. Create a culture where people feel like they have the opportunity to be successful, even if that means being successful in a small way. Doing so can help your company to avoid feeling like a large machine that crushes all initiative and creativity under its steel-toed boots. If you want your employees to see the benefits of working in your company, celebrate their small wins and let them know that you value their contributions. It may be as simple as sending a congratulatory email when an employee achieves a goal, or holding a meeting with them and their team members to celebrate a collaborative effort.
Have a code of conduct and clear expectations for behavior
One of the best ways to create a culture where people feel safe reporting harassment or inappropriate behaviour is to have a clearly-defined code of conduct and clear expectations for behaviour within the company. As Albert Houllou specifies, creating a code of conduct that outlines what is and isn’t appropriate behaviour can be helpful in a number of different ways. First, it can help to prevent harassment and inappropriate behaviour from occurring in the first place. If you have a clearly defined code of conduct and guidelines, people will be less likely to cross the line simply because they have never been told that what they did was inappropriate. It can also help to prevent a culture of victim blaming. When people feel safe reporting harassment or inappropriate behaviour, they’re less likely to blame themselves for what happened.
Finally, having a code of conduct that outlines what is and isn’t appropriate behaviour can help to create a culture where people feel safe bringing up issues that need to be addressed.
Wrapping Up
Creating a culture within your company isn’t something you can just do once and be done with it. This is why it’s important to have a system in place that helps you keep track of the different things you want to work on so that you can continually improve upon them.
We hope that these tips by Albert Houllou will help you build a better corporate culture within your company.
