How to Create a Culture in the Workplace

In addition to position vacancies posted on online job sites, employers use countless methods to create an inclusive, open, honest and focused workplace culture. Evidence of a solid, cohesive workplace culture is something that is extremely important to the work force, as well as organizational success and employee satisfaction. Creating a workplace culture enables you to attract and retain qualified talent, measure the level of job satisfaction and affect your company's bottom line through achieving organizational goals.

Instructions

1. Learn your company's history and the purpose of its founders. Obtain the organization's initial business plan and read what inspired the owners to form the company. This will give you insight to the company philosophy, mission and values. It will also equip you with everything you need to draft the company's mission and values statement in the event there is not one already.

2. Schedule a time for human resources experts, executive leadership and, if necessary, an outside consultant to discuss the best ways to promote a workplace culture. Human resources best practices suggest networking, advertising and plain word-of-mouth referrals are the most effective ways to illustrate workplace culture.

3. Incorporate results from your meeting into company information that is disseminated publicly, such as annual reports, newsletters, job advertisements and charitable giving campaigns. Demonstrate behavior that is consistent with workplace culture during interaction with employees, all-staff meetings and employee recognition events. Provide feedback on behavior that is not congruent with your workplace culture, such as poor customer service, lack of teamwork and wilfully failing to meet job expectations.

4. Develop in-house literature, such as employee handbooks, performance appraisal forms and training materials, that include statements that describe the company's commitment to maintaining a workplace culture that reflects ethical business practices, teamwork and top-quality products and services.

5. Amend all job vacancy postings to include statements about your workplace culture. For applicants determining if they want to submit their qualifications, culture plays an important role in seeing if there is a "fit" between the applicant and the position. Keep in mind benefits are different from culture, therefore, expand on statements that simply tell potential applicants you have a generous paid-time off policy and a casual dress code. Culture includes many other factors within the workplace, like philosophy, values, vision statement and future goals.

6. Establish relationships with vendors, suppliers, customers and clients based on your workplace culture. Consider replacing anyone whose business ethics, values and culture is contradictory to your way of doing business. Monitor employee performance and make adherence to cultural aspects of the workplace a performance standard to which you hold everyone accountable. Schedule period reviews of your company philosophy, workplace culture and ethical business practices to ensure they are timely and easy to follow.

References

• Society for Industrial & Organizational Psychologists: Using Coaching to Impact Organizational Culture
• Gallup: Workplace Culture
• Pepperdine University, Graziadio Business Review: Creating and Sustaining an Ethical Workplace Culture
• Businessweek: Smashing the Clock
• Business Perform: Workplace Culture Checklist

Resources

• HR.com
• Society for Human Resource Management
• National Human Resources Association
• American Society for Training & Development
• U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission