What Is Company Culture, Why Is It Critical Today?

Corporate culture is the shared values, attributes and characteristics of an organization. The imminent move to remote work tests more than the limits of modern IT and also holds a mirror to corporate culture. Organizations with some visionary managers and open communication find creative ways to work in these periods of uncertainty. Others highlight the growth and development opportunities of video interviews and commentary in this area. In short, corporate culture is the shared values, attributes and characteristics of an organization. This article contains information about what corporate culture is and why it is important today.

What is Company Culture?

Company culture expresses the attitudes and behaviors of a company and its employees. It is clear that the employees of an organization interact with each other, in the values ​​they have and the decisions they make. It covers various elements such as corporate culture, work environment, company mission, leadership style, values, ethics, expectations and goals. And alternative names include organizational culture, company culture, and workplace culture.

Looking back at today’s economic climate, they see it as a starting point where the best companies are starting to move away from their competition. It is very important to remember that even if everyone is forced to scrutinize their budgets in the short term, people will be an important differentiator moving forward. Regardless of how tempting it may be to cut back on moderate investments that don’t provide immediate ROI, organizations best prepared for long-term success now recognize that it’s time to double culture. Some of the team’s main focus areas are:

Doubling the Company’s Mission, Vision and Values

As it has grown in the last few years, the focus has been on the need to take deliberate action to scale the culture. How can he take the spontaneous collaboration and laser-focused problem solving elements that occur organically in a small team and multiply them in a much larger organization? What matters to a company is about maintaining top-down transparency to ensure that every employee, whether a software engineer or a sales representative, understands how their contribution fits into the big picture.

Regular company-wide meetings should be held each week with different department leaders to ensure that each employee is aligned around the company’s mission, vision and values. These meetings provide a preview of the department’s expanded roadmap, while providing an opportunity to highlight current initiatives and recognize progress. Presentations need not be extensive or time consuming. Just 15 minutes a week is enough to keep everyone in the same place and go a long way in keeping up with what’s going on with the company. And although with the pandemic most companies miss the social side of meeting in the same room, nevertheless having all the employees together in a video call can help reinforce the feeling of being a team.

Now is a particularly good time to reconsider the organization’s values. It should be reviewed whether these values are still correct and fit the current situation. If not, then check if there is a possibility to update them. Considerate values help transform long-term goals into daily habits that prepare team members for success. Ideally, they will continue to be applicable under a variety of circumstances while having a unique meaning to the company and industry. Some of the things that can be done to achieve this are as follows:

• Creating connections: On the surface, this may be about creating secure paths for user authorization and authentication in the context of the cloud directory service. But its other meaning now seems particularly important in terms of developing strong relationships. This should be done by connecting the team with each other, especially with customers and partners, listening to their specific needs and understanding how they can help.

• Thinking big: A company shouldn’t just have ambitious goals for its products. It should also think big as a value, in the broader context of how its actions and roadmap fit the current global situation. This gives an idea to shed light on how to solve current problems.

• Getting better every day: Continuous improvement is important for a company and a healthy balance of accessibility and ambition should be aimed here. Even if this improvement is 1%, it should be felt as a situation that every individual can achieve and it should be known that these single percentage points can provide 37 times more improvement over time, year on year.

Hiring and Retaining Qualified Employees

Although many businesses slow recruitment in response to economic uncertainty, critical positions need to be filled and, if necessary, recruited. When it comes to recruiting for these positions, there are currently plenty of possibilities for trial and error. This should be considered as an opportunity to reconsider the recruitment process and make sure that the application and interview priorities are in line with the concrete objectives for each position.

Although it is difficult to predict how someone will perform in a role, it saves the cost of repeating the process if the probability of finding a perfect match on the first try can be increased. This does not mean defending unrealistic perfect candidates, but identifying one or two areas of talent or background that are most important to a particular position means setting the bar high in those areas.

Recruiting is only one part of the equation. A comprehensive recruiting experience helps even highly talented people get up to speed faster and start feeling part of the culture. Remote initial attendance can be a challenge and sending pre-recorded slide show presentations rather than face-to-face training sessions may not be sufficient. It is worth questioning what steps can be taken to recreate the human interactions that normally occur during office-based recruitment. This could mean hosting informal meetups through Hangouts or pairing each new hire with a designated colleague who can answer questions while helping to create a friendly atmosphere. Strong recruiting experience also requires coordinated IT efforts to make sure new employees are equipped with the tools they need to succeed from the start.

Imitating Office Culture in Remote Work

Although most people are happy to get the chance to work remotely, there are still few who miss the office environment and friends. Even if you don’t notice a major change in quantitative output, it’s important to consider what intangible aspects of company culture are currently missing. Some things are difficult to duplicate, such as when people in the same room can feed each other’s energy during a brainstorming session. It is of great importance to accept this situation and to try to compensate for it.

Some of the steps to imitate the office culture are online meetings where the daily team meets and increased communication around program availability. These morning meetings ensure that every team member starts the day with a clear direction and an achievable goal. At the same time, communication can be established in some hours where the team can socialize. These can help a person to be better motivated by asking questions and getting answers. And in terms of usability, a balance must be struck between collaboration and deep work without distractions.