Easy Ways to Improve Your Company Culture

How can the culture of your company make or break your hiring process?

I was recently in discussion with the owner and management team of one of my client companies. 

They were telling me about their current hiring pains: low applicant flow, made even worse by no employee referrals.

I hear these questions of frustration across small to mid-size companies all the time…

Why aren’t more qualified candidates applying to our job ad?

Why aren’t our employees referring us to their friends and family?

How do you shift your focus from your hiring process to your company culture?

I know, this can be scary to give an honest look at your company culture, but trust me, this is essential!

Because the truth is, you could have the best job ad ever and offer amazing incentives to your employees for referrals, but if you have a bad company culture, and your employees don’t like working for you, why in the world would they leave a good review about your company on anonymous job boards, or recommend other people work there?!

They simply won’t.

A misconception I hear from a lot of my clients is that if we, at ApplicantPro, write them the perfect job ad, and make all the hiring logistics easy for them, that will automatically fix all their hiring pains.

Don’t get me wrong, that will definitely help!

But ultimately, even if we provide you with a stellar job ad and a seamless hiring process, neither of these things can make up for unhealthy, unattractive work culture. 

Your company’s culture will be the defining factor in increasing your applicant flow, employee referrals, retention of employees AND SO MUCH MORE.

Ok, so you’ve taken a moment to examine your company culture, and you can admit to yourself that it’s not great.

Give yourself a pat on the back and take a deep breath. Don’t be discouraged, that’s a huge first step! 

Now I want to tell you about the next 5 steps you can use to now improve your company culture.

These steps are simple, free changes that can have a huge effect!

1. Have consistent one on ones.

Consistent one on ones between teams not only help build a sense of comradery, but they create a space for questions and feedback, therefore a space where everyone can be heard. 

This is a perfect time to ask your employees how they are feeling, what would improve their work-life, and what they are struggling with. 

This sharing of information is of infinite value to both the employee and the employer. 

2. Set clear, SMART goals.

SMART goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. 

You can read about this acronym more in-depth with a quick google search, but it’s important to know that when employers set these SMART goals for their employees, it fosters an environment that stimulates personal growth. 

Your employee knows that you are invested in them. This increases job performance for the employer and job satisfaction for the employee.

3. Think outside of the box. 

What are ways you can keep your team engaged and having fun while still working hard? 

How about setting an incentive for the most employee referrals? Is there a creative kind of benefit you can offer based on goals met?

What are ways you can remove some of the roadblocks (hopefully ones they’ve expressed to you in a one-on-one!) for your employees? 

Can you give them the ability to work from home? Would changing set meeting dates from Tuesday to Wednesday hugely improve their Monday workload?

 GET CREATIVE!

4. Get comfortable in the uncomfortable.

Whether it be asking hard questions, accepting hard feedback, or apologizing when you are wrong, to build a successful company culture, you have to get more and more comfortable existing in uncomfortable moments. 

People want to work for honest leaders who aren’t afraid to check themselves.

5. FOLLOW UP, FOLLOW UP, FOLLOW UP!

There’s no sense in setting employee goals if you don’t periodically make sure they’re being worked towards. 

It’s pointless to ask your employees about frustrations if you aren’t checking back in to see if your solutions are working. 

Be sure to follow up to ensure all roads are paths to success.

OVERALL…

These cultural changes must start from the top down.

The leaders of your company must LEAD this effort.

To see company culture change, you, as leaders, must have the emotional intelligence to…

   -be honest about your company culture

   -listen to what your employees think about the company culture

   -get going on implementing change!

Don’t waste another workday trying to make up for bad company culture by tweaking your job ad for the hundredth time!

Instead, let us take care of the hiring logistics: writing job ads, managing job boards, background checks, onboarding, etc. so that you have the time to reflect on your company culture, and begin to transform it from the inside out. 

When you improve your company culture, you will create an environment that people want to be a part of and want to stay in. 

This will result in increased applicant flow, employee referrals, job retention, employee satisfaction, ETC., ETC.

Got more questions about how to improve your company culture and increase applicant flow? Feel free to reach out! We’d love to help you start reaching your hiring goals.