A company’s brand is heavily impacted by your office culture. If your culture is transparent, diverse, collaborative, and supportive of employee growth, your brand will be bolstered by your internal atmosphere. If it’s secretive, backstabbing, ego-oriented or hypocritical, it can potentially diminish all that you’ve worked for. From the highest level of management to the front-line employees, culture touches everyone, which in turn affects how your brand is perceived.

Nourish your company’s culture with the following guidelines to boost employee morale and prevent the demolition of your brand.

Communicate Your Culture From the Get-Go

Your employees should fit your culture. Your company culture should not vary with every employee contract signed. Recruiting people that have the technical skills is not enough. Skills can be taught. A mental outlook cannot. Communicate early and often your company culture to prospective employees as well as to your current team. Make sure everyone knows your company mission, vision, and core values.

Facilitate Camaraderie

Sporting events, bike-to-work day, polo Fridays, and even office Olympics are just a few things that you could blend into your schedule to take a breather from being behind the desk. Spark friendly competition and develop valuable office camaraderie by investing in unconventional social activities.

Create a Lively Environment

Add a little oomph your office space. Lighting, colors, textures and even smells are proven to subconsciously promote productivity and to boost mood. Bring some new pizzazz to your space and perk up your employees.

Nurture Transparent Communication

Refer to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and you’ll remember that inclusion is something that humans innately desire. Therefore, include your employees in appropriate decisions. Their opinions and concerns should matter to you. Provide a structure or process by which employees can have a voice in decisions. If you incorporate such a process, employees will feel more valued.

Along with that, give your employees honest and clear feedback. Ask them to do the same in your evaluation. Transparency and equity lead to clarity, trust, and loyalty.

Celebrate all of the Wins

Acknowledge employees for their victories. Whether they close a big deal, or their wife had a baby, your employees need to feel that they are recognized as a human rather than a work-bot. A fun idea to broadcast victories is a “brag board.” A brag board lets employees tack on celebration notes of their counterparts’ accomplishments. Bonus: read those brag’s aloud at the weekly team meeting.

Engage and Develop Employees

Again, your employees need to feel they are more than your money makin’ machine. Defining career goals, implementing timely reviews, and allotting time to connect on a personal level will foster employee productivity and garner their brand evangelism. Show them your passion for the brand and your willingness to invest in them as people. When they see you genuinely rooting for them and the company, they will be more likely to go the extra mile in their job.

A company’s culture needs to be flexible, yet consistent. And just as your entire business strategy, it is not something to be taken lightly. Remove authoritative barriers, be transparent, and encourage a positive climate to keep your brand intact.

Need some help with establishing company culture or facilitating other HR management needs? Contact us today to discuss your needs.