Investing in your company culture today will pay dividends tomorrow. If you’re looking to reduce turnover, retain talent, improve team morale, and maximize profits, it’s important to learn more about employee experience and how it’s a critical ingredient in company culture, which has become the driving force behind how an organization conducts business. A staggering 94 percent of entrepreneurs and 88 percent of job seekers say that a healthy culture at work is vital for success – 86 percent of job seekers avoid businesses with a bad reputation. It begs the question; how do you implement a positive company culture

Below, we’ll explain the importance of employee experience, how it relates to company culture, and which business tools will help your organization establish a culture employees want to be a part of today.

What Is Company Culture?

Gartner defines company culture, also referred to as organizational culture, as a collection of beliefs, values, ethics, and attitudes that make up an organization and guide its practices. The culture can be articulated in its mission statement or vision statement. The primary elements of company culture include its physical environment, human resources management, and how its staff works. It’s comprised of the following:

• Organizational philosophy
• Methods of decision making
• Operating styles
• Organizational structure
• Employee motivation and loyalty
• Internal communication patterns

Some organizations are popular for their unique culture that breaks from specific norms and expected practices. Today, employees expect transparency, equality, and communication in the workplace. Organizations that operate “secretively” may be hard-pressed to recruit new employees or retain workers.

Company culture can also be referred to as the conditions under which employees conduct work. Workplace conditions are shaped and reinforced by the overall company culture. Most organizations will determine and develop the type of culture they want and formalize it through statements of shared policies and values designed to actualize these cultural values. Leadership should set the tone, but they shouldn’t dictate the culture.

The culture you set forth should be a holistic approach to how the organization operates, helping to align employee initiatives and actions. It’ll influence how they behave and what’s considered acceptable when interacting with business partners, colleagues, and customers. The culture will also determine how the business reacts to evolution, change, and crises. It profoundly impacts your business’s ability to innovate and succeed, and retain or hire new talent. As a business owner, you must pay the highest level of attention to company culture – it could potentially shape its success and whether or not employees stay with the organization moving forward or speak highly of their experience. 

Your company culture is everyone’s responsibility, but what makes it so essential for success?

Why Is Company Culture Essential for Business Success?

Organizations of all sizes are enduring unique challenges, such as a tough economic climate, adjusting to the hybrid fashion of work, and keeping customers happy as they demand higher levels of service and faster response times. Implementing a solid company culture today will adequately prepare your business for future success. Company culture is essential for long-term success because it attracts and retains talent, increases employee productivity, and provides your organization with a positive image. Employees today say it’s a top priority for their next potential position, and improving company culture creates a positive, supportive atmosphere that gives your business a competitive advantage. What’s the key ingredient to an amazing company culture? An excellent employee experience.

There are many open positions on the market, and employees are no longer accepting a poor workplace culture, even if they are paid well. A culture survey released by BambooHR found that 94 percent of professionals said that company culture is crucial to their organization’s success.

Some of the the key business benefits that result from a thriving company culture include:

• Increased productivity
• Improved morale
• Increased revenue and profits
• Greater employee satisfaction
• More interest from top talent
• Increased employee engagement
• Improved employee experience
• Reduced turnover
• Reduced training and recruiting costs
• Creativity and innovation
• Improved overall customer experience and satisfaction

Maintaining a positive company culture is critical to business success. As a business leader, you must create a collaborative, supportive, and respectful culture to keep your employees happy while simultaneously providing them with the tools necessary to conduct their jobs efficiently and effectively. When your employees enjoy their work, they strive to always be at their best, which is why maintaining a strong company culture and remaining appealing to your current employees and potential prospects is a smart business strategy. When your team operates like a well-oiled machine, the sky’s the limit for what your company can achieve.

Employee experience is the critical ingredient to company culture. Gartner lists employee experience as the third-highest key initiative to achieve corporate objectives. When your employees are at the top of their game, it directly translates to a positive customer experience. When your customers are loyal to your business, they become brand advocates and elevate your public image, which can all be traced back to employee experience and company culture. Many businesses are looking to establish their company culture or enhance their current approach to take advantage of these benefits and keep their teams happy – but how can you improve your company culture as a business leader?

How to Improve Company Culture

It requires a team effort and understanding of goals to improve your company culture to be strong enough to drive performance, meet business objectives, and attract and retain top talent. According to Gartner, a staggering 68 percent of executive teams are reevaluating their company’s culture to adjust for the influx of hybrid and remote workers. Although various factors determine the level of success a business achieves, company culture is among the top, despite often being neglected. Investing in your employees today helps your staff to be happy, engaged, productive, and more likely to succeed tomorrow, but how can you develop a culture for your business where your employees feel valued and appreciated?

• Communicate your mission, vision, and goals: Transparency is key when it comes to employee experience and building your company culture. Businesses often have mission, vision, and goal statements that serve as a guiding principle when determining which direction they want to take their company. This will also help guide employee behaviors and positively influence their experience.
• Company values should be established: Your company values are at the forefront of its culture. While the mission, vision, and goals express the purpose of your business, the values serve as the behavioral guidelines which give your employees a sense of purpose and must be inclusive of all employees. 
• Follow the company values: Your company values shouldn’t be words on your website. You must live and breathe these values if you want to develop a positive company culture that employees believe in. They must be integrated into the day-to-day operations of your company. 
• Hire talent that share these values: The most vital part of building and maintaining a positive company culture is hiring talent that fits well. While skill and talent are important, it doesn’t paint the whole picture. Hiring employees that fit well with others will influence innovation, creativity, and collaboration.

Having an excellent company culture will have a positive impact on your business. It’ll benefit from lower staff turnover, attracting more applicants, and improving credibility and public image, to name a few. Fortunately, achieving this is possible, especially when adopting modern business tools.

Adopting Modern Business Tools Will Help Improve Company Culture

If you aren’t providing your employees with the modern business tools necessary for the job, it can lead to internal issues, such as a bad employee experience, low productivity and engagement, poor communications, high turnover, and slow response times, to name a few. These can wreak havoc on a business trying to establish or improve their company culture. It can also impact your bottom line. For example, when your staff doesn’t have immediate access to information they need, the customer will suffer. Remember, a staggering 96 percent of consumers will leave your brand after a single poor customer service experience. While mistakes do occur on occasion, they should never be a result of your communication due to outdated tools.

You can tie many employee issues like low engagement back to antiquated tools. Organizations like Google and HubSpot, which provide a stellar company culture worthy of global recognition, understand these issues, and it’s why they provide their employees with modern tools to promote a strong company culture. If you’re ready to reap the benefits of increased team morale and productivity, lower turnover, reduced operating costs, improved employee engagement, and a company culture that employees flock to for jobs, it’s time to consider adopting a cloud-based UCaaS solution. 

How Can Communication Tools Improve Company Culture?

A recent report from Metrigy’s Workplace Collaboration Metricast, which interviewed hundreds of global business leaders, found a common theme: some unified communication spending for the next two years will be dedicated to upgrading their business phone systems. Although it did not specify, many leaders have discussed an upgrade from outdated legacy systems, while others mentioned upgrading old VoIP systems to improve their security. Regardless of their objectives, the message is clear – upgrading your business phone system to a modern UCaaS solution will improve employee experience and company culture. In a world where we can access information from the palm of our hands, we shouldn’t be making our employees work harder for tasks that can be easily done with the right tools.

If you’re a business leader that sees this as an opportunity to establish a new company culture or improve upon the one you’ve built, learning about the benefits of upgrading your business phone system and what it can mean for your team is vital. As more employees demand to work a hybrid or remote schedule, remaining competitive in your market is a must. Your business must focus on improving its employee experience, and developing a strong company culture. Your communication tools can help you achieve these objectives, but what else can a business phone system do for you?

• Improve Team Collaboration
• Enable Hybrid & Remote Work Opportunities
• Improve the Employee Experience
• Improve the Customer Experience

These are all vital components in establishing or improving upon your company culture. A report from PwC Millennials showed that 78 percent of millennials in the workforce found access to modern technology tools makes them more effective at work. Today’s business communication tools are critical in improving the employee experience. When your business upgrades and adopts a cloud-based UCaaS solution, your employees are equipped with the necessary tools to streamline their workflows, and improve the collaboration process, becoming a more creative, focused, driven, and innovative team. Fortunately, we’ve developed a resource that can help you decide your next move.

Download Our eBook and Move Your Business Phone System to the Cloud!

There is a renewed emphasis on the employee experience, and organizations globally are looking to revamp their businesses and provide a company culture that puts their employees first. One way to improve the employee experience and help your business achieve its cultural objectives is to provide your team with adequate tools to get the job done. Upgrading your business phone system to a cloud-based UCaaS solution should be at the forefront of improvements you’re looking to make this year. If you’re interested in learning more about how a new business phone system can help you meet your employee experience and company culture goals, download our eBook,  The Top 5 Reasons to Move Your Business Phone System to the Cloud to learn more.