Company Culture… It’s More Than Employee Perks

Company culture. A phrase that you could say gets thrown around a lot these days, especially now that hybrid and remote work have become practices that have stuck around in the post-pandemic world. But company culture is more than just having people come into the office to work. And ready for this? It’s also more than employee perks too. Yes, I know that’s what most people think of when they hear the phrase “company culture,” and that’s coming from someone who has dogs running around the office and beer on tap just a few feet away from my desk. Sure, those things are cool, but they are the side effects of what an office culture can have.

So, what is company culture then? To me, it is more about the way that people act or how they feel rather than the things that the company can give them. I’m talking about that thing that drives employees to give it their all and about the meaningfulness in the work they do. It’s no secret that everyone wants to think that the work that they do matters and that it means something more than just getting a paycheck (I know, I know, that’s a big one too). That is why having a purpose for the company goes a long way to building that culture. Take Charles IT for example. Sure, we’re obviously an IT provider, but we’re servicing cancer research institutes. Ok fine, we aren’t necessarily curing cancer, but we are enabling technology for someone else to do it. Or how about the work we do with defense manufacturers. You could say that we are helping others serve and protect the nation. When it comes to work, it’s worth it for employees to be able to think beyond just their job title, by asking themselves, “why am I really here?” And it’s important for your company to be able to connect those dots for them.

Yet, there is, of course, more to it than that. You need employees to buy in, but to do that they need to be made aware of what the company culture actually is. There are many ways to do that, (and yes, those in a leadership role, I’m talking directly to you), but it pretty much comes down to just simply telling your employees what your company culture is and repeating it often. Hell, even have it posted somewhere. Just get that information out there and be unapologetic about what the vibe is. I’m talking about celebrating when you see that culture in action by shouting it out and being excited about it. Just make sure that what YOU are doing matches what you expect from employees because otherwise your message won’t mean anything. Most people can see past phony.

That’s right, as a company leader, it is part of your job to create the atmosphere needed to get employees to buy into the company culture. Sharing what your company’s core values are is essentially the first step and easiest part, if that is something that’s already been decided. What is more difficult is when the company starts to grow, since the communication of that culture will change. But that just means you need new processes and leaders to manage those processes because how you approach the culture must scale with a company’s growth. That’s especially relevant to larger companies or businesses where employees are remote or in different locations. That could look like just repeating your message in different venues, such as a company intranet system, or in company-wide emails, or holding regular town hall style meetings.

As long as you and your leadership team know what the company’s core values are, how you communicate that can and will change. I can illustrate this with my own journey at Charles IT. When I started at the company, there were only 17 of us working here, so as soon as you walked in, you knew what the culture was, and you could see that everyone else knew too. But as we continue to grow, the different iterations of what the culture is have definitely been tweaked and changed. While it’s not exactly how it was seven years ago, the core values, however, are still the same. What we look for in like-minded individuals, like the people who embody our cores value, doesn’t change either. But the method of how we show them what our company culture is, or how we praise those who match it, that’s the stuff that continually evolves with the company. In general, your values don’t change much, but your processes do.

Another thing that changes is your employees, depending on what generation they are part of. Sure, age doesn’t matter, but baby boomers, millennials, gen z… they all have their own set of views on company culture. The newer generation, for instance, seems to care about the company’s work regarding their inclusiveness, and if company is doing good in the world. That means then that it’s important for leaders to make conservative efforts to ensure that the company is taking actionable steps to show those employees that they are doing those things that matter.

Additionally, and despite the generation, it is important for employees to have the ability to learn new things, take risks, and to solve big, interesting, and meaningful problems. For example, our team doesn’t get out of bed every morning just to do password resets. Sure, they can easily do that, but they want to work on fascinating projects and solve the problems that no one else can figure out. That’s why you have to encourage people to think outside the box, because along with fair compensation, good benefits, and work/life balance, it’s about letting employees grow and improve their skills.

Naturally, before I wrap this up, I have to mention company outings, as Charles IT is known for ours. For those unfamiliar with our epic outing in particular, it’s our annual outing where the team travels across the country to a surprise location for a few days. Sure, it’s great for leadership to feel like we have provided a life experience to our employees who might not have otherwise had anything like that, but the real benefit is people just building relationships. Whether it’s them playing paint ball together, or riding in a golf cart, or hanging out on Bourbon Street, they are getting to know somebody who they generally only saw in a proper work environment. Now, they finally get a chance to see them as real people. That’s a huge part of our company culture - being able to bring the team outside of the day to day, and what they do for their standard job. Many would be surprised to hear that we actually gain so much productivity from our fun outings because our employees get to know their co-workers, which means they can lean on them and collaborate better.

That’s brings to me to my last point on company culture which is who your employees are. You want those people to have empathy for one another and who care about what they do and where they work. You also want your leaders to be people who are capable of asking questions and listening to feedback, because who has a better pulse on a culture than the people working directly in it. Oh, and dogs and beer in the office are cool too…