For job seekers and managers alike, organizational culture is of greater importance than many people realize. If you’re looking for new opportunities, for example, would you want to work for a company whose mission and values you don’t respect? And, likewise, when your responsibilities include nurturing a supportive environment for your employees, it’s vital that you know the ways to make your business a great place to work.
Promotional Consultant Today shares these six tips from author Taunee Besson on how to create an appealing corporate culture for long-term job satisfaction.
1. State a clear mission, then live it daily. How many times have you been through a vision/mission/goals process where the recommendations are neatly tucked away in a large binder? Or, your mission is displayed prominently on plaques around the office and everyone pays lip service to it, but ignores it in day-to-day business.
2. Learn to live by your mission, vision and values. Align your work initiatives to these values. For example, if one of your core values is service excellence, then provide programs that empower employees to easily deliver service excellence to customers.
3. Develop a strategic plan that’s understood and embraced by all levels of the organization. An org chart du jour and a direction that changes with the weather breed both confusion and intellectual paralysis. Great leaders set a clear direction, then constantly reinforce it.
4. Build a culture where everyone is part of the team. The age of pitting one star performer against another is over, as today collaboration and cooperation rule. In the cutthroat environment of a down economy, who needs internal one-upsmanship?
5. Be flexible to change. These days, workers are looking for more flexible hours and continual training so they can improve their skill sets. Companies must flex their policies to help employees feel secure.
6. Have fun. Southwest Airlines is a company that thinks of more reasons to party than almost any others, but they also party for a purpose. For example, the recruiting department once invited Southwest employees and their friends to a soiree at a small city airport where they were having difficulty filling positions. Result: they hired a lot of their employees’ friends for a cost per hire of $3.50 a head.
Source: Senior Columnist Taunee Besson, CMF, is president of Career Dimensions, Inc., a consulting firm founded in 1979 that works with individual and corporate clients in career transition, job search, executive coaching, talent management and small business issues. She is an award-winning columnist for CareerJournal.com and a best-selling author of the Wall Street Journal’s books on resumes and cover letters.