How do you define a successful company culture? Call it the recipe for success, the promise of profit or secrets to recruit and retain the best talent. The elements that make up for a successful company culture cannot be defined with a one-size-fits-all approach. Each company is unique in itself by its areas of service offerings and customer requirements, business goals etc.

Hence the secrets to successful company culture needs to a careful blend of information and knowledge with customised approaches and business strategies that work for your company. Company culture dons many different hats depending on the vision and mission of the business.

Google for instance, holds an enviable spot when it comes to leading with example of a well-defined unique company culture. The company has a sprawling Googleplex campus, on-site medical and legal professionals to help, shared bicycles and endless list of perks for employees, hence they manage to attract the best talent pool.

Who doesn’t want to work for Google? Going further, the company also employs a chief cultural officer to maintain and promote growth of company culture, centred on employee satisfaction, devoid of hierarchy and open room for communication with no walls.

Before you start defining a company culture, there are some key questions that have to be answered:  What are the core drivers of the company? What are future business objectives of the company? What is the kind of talent pool that the company is looking at to recruit on board and evolve? Do these people share common business goals and are they driven by vision to lead and tread on paths unknown with the extra bit of risk taking ability and confidence?

See: The 3 Keystones of Trust in Corporate Culture

If these above questions get well answered, then you need to look no beyond for intuitive guidance for a new beginning but be guided by a practical light. Here are some of the six key secrets that define a successful company culture:

1. Do not try to embed ideas which are not in sync with company values. Realign your company mission, such that all internal and external efforts are aligned to meet the business vision. Keep you brand consistent and company authentic to its mission.
2. Keep an open door policy to hire, recruit and train, but not fire. When you recruit, look for humility as one of the standards to uphold. Evaluate the strengths and weakness of your company and look for opportunities wherein you can promote the employer brand. A diverse workforce helps managers get new perspectives and make most of the differences to accelerate company goals.
3. Adopt a people first attitude. While your company might be facing pressures from various stakeholders, board of directors and venture capitalists, only come second to your employees and customers. Acknowledge efforts of your employees and look at ways to ease burdens of their day-to-day life. Instead of asking employees to build their life around work, focus on identify their purpose of action in their job roles and how you can make them empowered to achieve higher intents in life.
4. Let go of the cubicle barriers and hierarchy. Whether your office has an open office architectural plan or not, let go of the cubicles and try to interact, connect and engage with the team. People need to access each other for information and to get the job done. If people feel closed work space and hierarchy separating them, then team doesn’t grow in isolation.
5. Establish a culture that “teamwork makes the dream work” and you will soon observe a radical change in the way employees interact and take their goals seriously to deliver productive outcomes consistently. Encourage “healthy happy hour” sessions for employees to get them more engaged by organising lunches, yoga classes, rock climbing and do not develop judgements rather soon.
6. Promote Innovation. Change is the only constant, and with change comes great challenges to set new benchmarks of success. Do not let go of this opportunity to invite new ideas and tread on different paths, rather than following an easier route. Incorporate acceptance of change to develop an incubation centre for new ideas that breed, dwell and later succeed.

The best ideas are often within your company. Give the best brains the feed to speak up and initiate projects. Highlight employee contributions of those who come up with innovative ideas and are working towards building something awesome.

Whether your company is a start-up or long established entity of brand repute, it is never too late to refocus on what your company culture should look like and realign your strategies to develop a healthy culture wherein success is the new norm.

Also read: Top 7 Must-Haves in Company HR Policy

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