Why Your Company Culture Needs to Be a Reflection of You Give your workforce a reason to work hard, and you will reap the benefits of people who actually want to work for you and share your vision.
By AJ Agrawal Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Company culture is a major problem. Research from Deloitte revealed that many business leaders surveyed rated employee retention and company culture as an "urgent" problem. Since company culture directly influences employee retention, it makes sense that it has a direct impact on how many people stay with a company, especially the millennial generation.
This guide will show explains why company culture is absolutely a reflection on an entrepreneur's values and beliefs, along with learning how to solve the employee-retention problem.
Focus on your values
The Baby Boomer generation, along with much of Gen X, had a strong feeling of hierarchy. They do something because their boss told them to do so. Millennials, on the other hand, don't subscribe to the same view. They want to do something because it makes a difference, rather than because it may make the most money.
Related: Why Making Money Means Thinking Beyond Profits
Because the majority of the workforce is millennials, your company culture will mostly likely fail if your values revolve around making the most money possible. You must have something else about your company. Your values reflect on you as a person and on you as a company.
Take Google, for example, their staff is well paid, but they have a greater pull than companies offering even more money. Why? Google provides flexibility for its employees. Every Friday afternoon, for instance, the team is given the chance to work on their own projects. They know they are making a difference, and that's why employees stick with them.
Ensure there is a creative vision
The new generation of employees will not sit at a desk doing the same thing day in and day out. They have no interest in it. Your company needs a creative vision infused within its culture. Without this creative vision, you stand little chance of attracting the rock stars of your industry.
One of the reasons why companies lose their creative edge is because they're too busy. They lack the time to dedicate to crafting new and exciting things. And this most often happens when a company is at its most successful point. They lose sight of what they were targeting in the first place.
If you are losing employees, now is the time to step back and think about where your creativity has gone.
Related: How a Culture of Leadership at ALL Levels Will Help Your Team Take Gold
Add 'fun' to the mix
Life is too short to be spending a considerable portion of your time at a place you hate. I mean if spending time at your office isn't fun and rewarding, why would anyone want to stick with your company?
But fun doesn't have to mean doing no work. Get people passionate about what they do by showing how passionate you are.
Think of new ways to get the job done and form a real sense of community within the workplace. Spending time with people you like doing something you enjoy is how big companies write the success stories of today.
Determine demands and expectations
You may want your workforce to work like their lives depend on it, but why should they? Because you told them to? Because you're paying them to? Or because they want to?
The best companies don't intimidate their employees to working the hardest they possibly can. Their employees actually want to do it.
Take Apple as an example. While it is a challenging place to work, employees stay there because they know everyone is working as hard as them, and they are working on products that will change the whole world.
You must give your employees a reason to want to work hard and a paycheck isn't enough to do that. Workers have demands and expectations, just as you do. Don't ask your employees to do what you won't do. Lead them to a place they want to go to as much as you. Your company culture depends on it.
Your company's culture is a reflection on you. Employee retention relies on you becoming the perfect embodiment of the company you want to maintain. Good leaders don't write commands; they stand at the front and lead to the way ahead.
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Give your workforce a reason to work hard and you will reap the benefits of people who actually want to work for you and share your vision.
