A successful business is built on the foundation of hardworking employees. However, finding such candidates is difficult, even with huge HR teams and expansive budgets.

That’s why it becomes more so imperative for small businesses to stand out to candidates. The only way that is possible is by having a great organizational culture!

“It is the candidate’s world and we are just living in it”. – LinkedIn

That’s why to fill in your open roles with the best talent, you need to craft your company culture around your employees.

Here is how you can do that:

1. Respect is pivotal

Having mutual respect for everyone regardless of their designation in a workplace is probably step one of developing a great company culture. For that, every employee of the company (be it big or small) needs to work together and give each other the same level of respect that they want from others.

This can be achieved by doing small but impactful things like being polite with seniors and juniors alike, delegating meaningful tasks to your subordinates, and by even paying attention to non-verbal communication. 

2. Remember You Are in This Together!

Establish a sense of belongingness by having more than a professional relationship with your team. It will help create teamwork and build trust. Caring is important as when you don’t, the culture suffers as in that case, it is everyone for themselves.

3. Inclusion is the key

Be inclusive of every employee regardless of their gender, age, sexual orientation, and race. The more diversity, the more are the inputs and the stronger is the team’s ability to hear perspective in a respectful manner.

4. Be open to change

Company culture can only thrive when everyone feels comfortable sharing their opinions and expressing themselves. Not only does this help in getting more perspective on an issue, it even makes the employee feel wanted and appreciated.  As an organization, you need to make sure that innovation should be at the core of your organization’s culture.

5. Set an Example

As a company leader, you should always remember that if you want your team to buy into your company’s culture, you need to make sure you too live by it and don’t just talk values. Once you start doing this, your company culture will thrive just as you want.

6. Empower and Encourage

As a leader, you shouldn’t expect your team to adopt the company culture from the get-go. Instead, you need to mindfully shape their opinion in a way that they can see the company’s vision as clearly as you do. For that to happen, you need to give them time whilst empowering them so that they start taking pride in the company culture.

7. Communication is important

Like I mentioned before understanding and mutual respect are the building blocks of a company’s culture. And what makes it, even more, better is great communication. By communication, I do not just mean among teams but between the leaders and employees too. This helps keep everything transparent and the faith of the employees in the company and its value intact.

To summarize:

These were the points that I think are important for company culture. Let me wind it up by quoting a few points by Kylas. A great culture helps you:

• Raise team morale and motivate everyone to give their 100%
• Increases productivity and efficiency
• More teamwork and fewer workplace politics.
• Long term commitments
• Employees focus more on outcomes and growth.

That was it from my end. If there are more points you would like to share, feel free to leave a comment. I would love to hear what else can be added to this list and your experiences as a small business.