A Startup’s Guide To Building A Positive Company Culture

Every small business begins as a startup. In 2020, about 99.9% of all U.S. businesses were considered small businesses with less than 500 employees.

Startup companies face several challenges, and the trend has only increased with time as the marketplace becomes more competitive. According to the Global Startup Genome Ecosystem 2019 report, 11 out of 12 startups fail. This staggering statistic is attributed to a lack of funding, marketing and team collaboration.

As a business owner, creating a successful startup involves setting strategic goals and refining them often, thorough market research and determining the market demand, and loving what you do and never giving up. Additionally, and growing in importance today, creating a company culture that is invaluable will attract and retain employees who are the lifeline of your business. By investing in company culture, employees feel valued and have a sense of growth opportunity, resulting in better team collaboration and productivity.

Company Culture
Building company culture for Startups

Those principles may sound straightforward, but they’re more difficult than one may expect. Marketplace competition is fierce. Startups are increasingly developing competitive benefits packages to accommodate employees’ growing interests in work-life balance and opportunities for growth. This includes 401(k)s, PTO and workplace flexibility. Below are five ways startups can begin building a more positive company culture today:

Identify desired core values.

The beauty of launching a startup is that you are behind the wheel in driving business decisions and creating the path to the company’s culture. Core values can include strategic thinking, environmental governance, creative problem solving, open communication or innovative leadership.

You likely have several years of experience working for other companies from which you can draw positive and negative attributes in order to define your own values. Additionally, startup owners may assess the company culture by evaluating the onboarding process to recruit the right people, gauge leaderships’ sentiment on embracing change or employee incentive programs to encourage performance.

Hire based on those values.

Hiring the right people for the right role impacts your company culture, productivity and bottom line. Many companies have turned to values-based recruitment, which prioritizes the candidate’s specific values, beliefs and goals when attracting, hiring and promoting individuals. This type of hiring dives into the candidate’s ability to think strategically, contribute to long-term success, innovate and advance.

Though it may be hard to gauge after a first impression, it is crucial to monitor a new team member’s ability for self-reflection, adaptability and goal setting and achieving to see if they are a fit for the company’s ideal culture.

Company Culture
Hiring the right people for the right positions based on the candidate’s value

Use benefits to build a positive culture.

One of the best ways to strengthen company culture is by implementing benefits and creating a sense of community among employees. There are numerous benefits, engagement solutions and work-life balance programs that support and uplift employees, improve collaboration and reduce turnover.

As many businesses move from remote to hybrid schedules, employee engagement is critical to a cohesive transition. Now more than ever, an employee engagement platform that enables companies to connect, recognize, lead and listen to their employees is critical to recognize and connect teams. The culture of employee recognition is powerful. By empowering teams to publicly recognize and appreciate each other (across every position), employees feel a greater sense of appreciation and value.

Employees value paid time off (PTO), but employers should value it more. With PTO, employees improve physical and mental health, increase mental motivation, improve personal relationships and decrease the rate of burnout. These factors are significant in keeping a healthy and happy workforce and allows employees to return with a renewed sense of passion for their job. One way to show employees the importance of taking time off is to take PTO to the next level by offering a match to employees’ vacation savings.

Company Culture
Paid leave is the right time for employees to recharge

Mental health benefits are becoming more commonplace as well. Startup culture has been heavily struck with mental health challenges due to the “make it or break it” mentality. With multiple pressing deadlines and the looming notion of the startup success rate, founders and employees alike are highly susceptible to experiencing mental health issues, whether it is anxiety or depression. As communities across the nation continue to raise awareness and developmental health initiatives, sought-after companies will be those that quickly adopt work-life balance programs to encourage positive employee mental health.

One way companies may promote work-life balance is by offering greater workplace flexibility. Working mothers, fathers and caregivers face steep child care rates, and others need to step away to spend time with their children after school. Companies that consider their current and future employees’ family and personal life and work to incorporate on-site day care or flexible work hours are becoming increasingly desired today.

Ensure benefits align with core values.

By now, you may have better direction on how you want to build your startup culture and which benefits you are interested in offering. However, it is important to take a step back to analyze if these benefits properly weave into the culture and your workforce.

For example, if your company culture supports environmental, social and governance, are you ensuring your 401(k) program offers SRI funds? Or are your benefits modernized solutions that align with a younger generation?

Strategically offering benefits that support your culture will further fortify your company values. Employees will recognize that these benefits are meaningful to you as an employer as well. Business owners should continually be open to adopting new solutions to best fit their workforce.

Be deliberate in building your company culture.

A thoughtful, deliberate and consistent approach to developing company culture will make the difference between one that resonates and another that falls short of meeting expectations. There are many resources and advisors available to help kick-start building company culture. Don’t be afraid of surveying employees or asking for a trusted mentor’s perspective.

Remember that company culture should be foundational, and the benefits offered will amplify the overall business worth and show employees you genuinely care. Grow with your company and continue looking for ways to improve its culture.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2021/07/27/a-startups-guide-to-building-a-positive-company-culture/

Metta Marketing
Leading Brand Strategy Consultant

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