How to Create, Build & Shape Your Company Culture

Your company's culture consists of the shared values, practices, and characteristics of every person within your organization. Every company has some form of culture, though not all cultures are easily identifiable or productive.

By learning more about and redefining your company's culture, you can better identify problems, increase engagement, and possibly even make friends with your colleagues. 

6 Ways to Create a Company Culture

Knowing how to create company culture requires attentiveness and empathy towards your employees. After all, they are the ones who ultimately define your organization's culture. Below are some of the best strategies for building a strong company culture. 

1. Identify What Core Values Make Your Organization Unique

There is no universal method to build company culture because every organization is different. Every company’s unique mix of staff, clients, and location gives it its personality, motivations, rules, and core values. Knowing the people you work with is the most important aspect of creating a company culture.

By learning more about your colleagues and what motivates them to stay with your company, you may immediately identify ways to strengthen the existing culture. Examples include:

• Highlighting company programs and incentives people enjoy
• Identifying new ways to talk to and relate with colleagues
• Revising company core values to fit your employees' values
• Listening to what changes employees would like to implement

2. Focus On Your Employer Branding

Your employer branding defines how other organizations, clients, and, most importantly, job applicants perceive your company. iHire's What Candidates Want: 2023 Job Seeker Report showed that nearly 76.0% of job seekers research companies before applying "always" or "most of the time." Therefore, establishing and maintaining a positive brand for your organization is critical for attracting high-quality candidates. 

Correcting a bad brand reputation after the fact is difficult, so the best way to maintain your employer branding is to be proactive. Speak with your current employees about changes they'd implement, how they heard about your company, and why they might consider leaving. Many employers' reputations stem from their previous employees, so listening to and keeping your current staff happy will help uphold your brand. In turn, your company culture will improve as well. 

3. Increase Communication

Some of the best employers listen more than they speak. By creating open communication channels in your workplace, you can increase the sharing of ideas and information between colleagues. Increasing communication can also help you learn more about your employees, including what they can bring to the company and where they'd like to go within your organization.

Communication is especially important for hybrid and remote jobs, as some employees may not always be in the loop. Methods for increasing communication include:

• Daily huddles or meetings
• Regular meetings with individual employees
• Online chat and file-sharing services, such as Discord, Google, Teams, or Slack
• Weekly newsletters that multiple departments contribute to
• Group activities during the workday

4. Consider Diversity and Culture in the Hiring Process

Whether you're expanding or just starting your organization, it's crucial to prioritize culture when examining your candidate pool. Diverse workforces increase productivity, creativity, and engagement among employees. 

Additionally, it's critical that the employees you hire actually want to help the company grow and grow with it. Otherwise, they risk holding you and the rest of your organization back. Hiring applicants based on character rather than just their resume will help you build a stronger company culture by ensuring everyone has the same shared goals.

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5. Create Employee Appreciation Events

Some companies host regular parties for birthdays, holidays, and more, that unfortunately fall flat and feel just as mundane as the rest of the workday. Creating events and mid-workday parties that focus more on showing appreciation for the employees themselves will help you improve your company culture. Employees may get more excited about these parties and, as a result, get more excited about their jobs and shared time together.

This doesn't mean you have to eliminate holiday parties – instead, find creative ways to incorporate employee appreciation into the events and party themes. Examples include the following:

• Personalized gifts or gift exchanges
• Appreciation posts on social media
• Company-paid lunches
• Thanksgiving notes
• Additional PTO for holidays

6. Consider Switching to Hybrid Work or Shorter Workweeks

Many companies draw away from hybrid work, shorter workweeks, and shorter work hours out of fear that they will decrease productivity, but this rationale isn't necessarily true. Countless employees and job candidates would prefer to work somewhere flexible, whether it gives them an extra day off or lets them work from home with their kids for half of the week. As a result, switching up how often employees are needed in the office will make current employees happier with their jobs and expand your talent pool when it comes time to hire.

How to Maintain the Company Culture You've Built

Once a company culture has been established, the true challenge is maintaining it. Amid industry changes and fears of layoffs, your company culture may need to be revised as people's workflows shift. However, a company with a strong culture can survive theoretically anything.

The most relevant example of this is the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced countless workforces to switch to hybrid and remote positions. While some organizations struggled during the pandemic, many companies with strong cultures maintained the majority of their productivity without losing staff. 

Every company's culture is different. So, if you are ever in doubt about what your employees need, ask them first. Other great ways to maintain company culture include:

• Holding regular meetings
• Giving employees more leadership opportunities
• Hanging a "Thank You" board for colleagues to appreciate one another
• Rewarding positive workplace interactions with incentives
• Creating monthly bonuses employees can nominate each other for, such as parking spaces or cash prizes
• Regularly soliciting feedback
• Creating new traditions based on employees' interests

Building and maintaining a strong company culture will increase productivity, make your employees more likely to stick around, and turn your job into an all-around better time. 

iHire can help you learn how to create a company culture and prepare your organization for success. Visit our employer branding and company culture resource center to continue expanding your skills.