When you think of a company, two questions often come to mind:

1. What service or product do they provide?
2. How is their company culture?

While products and services essentially stay the same in a business, your company culture continuously needs to be improved and enhanced.

Company culture is the ever-present and seemingly subtle energy that courses within a workplace and defines a company’s personality. Whether an employee is cognizant of it or not, the company culture ultimately makes or breaks the employee’s experience. It affects the level of effort an employee is willing to dedicate to their job, the extent of respect they possess for the company, and ultimately the results they produce. 

Successful companies continuously reassess where they stand in terms of workplace culture by asking questions like: 

• Do we need to reassess our values? 
• Has the company culture strayed over time?
• Are there areas of our company culture that need improvement?

Chances are, you answered yes to one or more of these. Thankfully, workplace culture is something that can be adjusted. So, whether or not you’re simply trying to further progress or hoping to get back on track – we put together some simple steps to help you get there.

Steps to Building Your Company Culture

STEP ONE: Identifying Company Culture Issues 

Step one, identify the areas that you want to work on. Ask important questions like: 

• What are some visible issues in the workplace? 
• Is there low employee engagement? 
• What types of communication issues are occurring? 
• Has there been any feedback about micromanagement? 

Make a list of any problems so that you can figure out what to work on solutions for.

STEP TWO: Define Your Company Values

As is necessary with any company, possessing core values is key. It is crucial you clearly define your company values as they will serve as a guideline for how to move forward in the future.

Patagonia, an outdoor clothing and gear company, is a perfect example of a strong company culture based on well defined values. Devoted to exploring the outdoors, Patagonia has developed a company culture that reinforces this goal. They encourage their employees to take breaks during the workday to go out and surf or bike and grant them a flexible schedule so they can have time to pursue these hobbies. In their eyes, how can they hire people who possess such passion and yet, prevent them from using it?

STEP THREE: Offsite Team Building Activities to Improve Company Cultures

Participating in offsite team building activities is a great approach because it allows your employees to get out of the office, grow cohesively, and work effectively as a single unit. Lessons learned in offsite team building then roll over into the workplace and result in better workflow.

Some of the components of a company culture include communication, relationships, perspective, and philosophical direction. With the right team building facilitator and specialized offsite team building exercises, the company culture issues you identified in step one can be addressed with solutions —and this is the best part— developed by your team. 

At the end of the day, the culture a company chooses to possess can ultimately attract or repel possible employees, customers, or audiences. It allows people to gain insight into what fuels your every step as a company and speaks volumes on your motives. So, make sure your company culture tells the story you want others to hear.

As company culture experts, we can put together a program that will take you through each of these steps in a fun, interactive and creative program that will strengthen your team bond and enhance your company culture. Contact us today to learn more about our purposeful programming methods for your next offsite event.