Business Culture – Part 4

If you have a business with employees I strongly recommend engaging them in the process of developing your culture.

This is a good opportunity to review if your employees fit in your business. But, keep in mind that they will probably come up with things that you don’t see and can use.

Once you have developed/documented your culture you need to make sure your business lives by these values. This is best done with support and nurture, however, it should be clear that not living the values after support and culture is unacceptable.

It goes without saying that most importantly you as the leader of the business must be true to the culture. This should not be a problem because you determined the values. Having said that, the values in your culture could be what you “aspire” to be, not what you are.

Think about recognising when your people live the values. There are many ways you can do this including a post on your Website and/or inclusion in your company’s newsletter. You could make a donation to charity in their name and/or perhaps most of all, give them a face-to-face heart-felt thank you.

Think about promotions, pay practices and performance related pay and reward people for living the values. Not necessarily as a bonus but to hit the basic salary – turning up on time and putting the hours in should not be basis of an employees agreement. However, perhaps the most importantly thing is to review your recruitment and training processes.

It is important you develop your own values but here are a few words to get you thinking: