Company culture is what defines the overall feel, environment, and “personality” of your business. It also is a significant factor in overall employee job satisfaction, performance, and retention. So, if you think all great company culture needs is a pool table, happy hours, or wearing jeans every day, we invite you to think deeper. While these are all certainly factors that improve and entice talent on the surface level, we will share what genuinely great company culture actually looks like. Here at EG, we believe wholeheartedly that culture eats strategy for breakfast, but for this to be fully true, your company culture must go deeper than just offering “perks.”

Your Company Culture Must Have a Foundation

Like we mentioned earlier, great company culture must go deeper than surface-level perks. While these perks are an important part of company culture, they do nothing if they do not have a foundation to ground them. The core aspect of company culture foundation is trust between employees and leadership.

Trust as a foundation is the best way to build a truly great company culture. Start building a foundation of trust in your organization by empowering your employees to set their own goals (with direction from leadership), recognize excellence in your team, communicate often, have transparent leadership, facilitate individual employee growth, and give your employees a voice.

Empower Employees to Set Goals

Letting your employees have autonomy over what they want to accomplish professionally, sets the expectation that leadership trusts their skills and abilities to contribute to the overall success of the organization.

Recognize Excellence

Research has shown that public recognition has the largest effect on trust when it occurs immediately after an employee meets a goal. Public recognition inspires others to try harder as well.

Communicate Often

Having frequent and open lines of communication may be one of the greatest single factors in building a foundation of trust. When employees can count on their leaders to not only clearly communicate their expectations as well as what is happening in the company overall, they are more likely to build employee trust and loyalty moving forward.

Practice Transparent Leadership

Transparent leadership goes hand-in-hand with communication. Leadership should be sharing as much information about the company as possible with their employees to continue building trust and loyalty. Keeping your employees aware and on the same page will help keep them motivated and productive.

Facilitate Individual Employee Growth

Leaders who recognize their employees are interested in personal and professional development beyond specific job-related development will have a competitive advantage over those that don’t.

Give Employees a Voice

Employees want and need the opportunity to give input into the projects they work on, who they work with, and how they work. This autonomy allows them to select projects that most closely align with their strongest skillsets and professional passions.

Trust is not optional for organizations that want to attract and retain the best people and achieve the best results. The impact of foundational trust in an organization include:
– Employees reported an increase in job satisfaction of 60%
– Were 70% more aligned with their companies’ purpose
– Employees felt 66% closer to their co-workers
– Experienced 40% less burnout from their work

Building a solid foundation for your company culture is the best way to create an environment that allows your employees to grow and flourish. Happy employees lead to more productive work and more profitable business! Using your core values and mission to drive your culture is essential to maintaining a healthy company culture that retains your top performers. Do you want to learn more about what good company culture actually looks like, reach out to us, and we’ll share a deeper dive using our over six decades of industry experience.

About EG Workforce Solutions

We’ve been in this business for decades and have developed a deep network of professional connections. Whether they’re companies looking for talent, job seekers looking for work, or an up-and-coming store in need of some temporary help, we know the right people to bridge the gap between the hiring and the hired.

But what’s more, we get to know people. From employers hiring to candidates looking, we take the time to listen and learn. We hear your likes, talents, and needs. We gain an understanding, and with it, we’re able to facilitate lasting relationships between businesses and people.