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Company culture is pivotal to business success, both large and small and, for small business owners who need to stand out in the market, it’s even more important to have a great company culture that you can shout about. Getting it wrong (or worse still, not addressing your company culture when you know that things aren’t right) can have a detrimental impact and increase stress levels amongst employees. As always, here at Clear Bridge HR we want to help keep things simple so here are our top tips on developing a culture in your business: Start at the beginning Unsurprisingly this is the part of the process that most businesses owners fall down. It can be a daunting process looking at a blank piece of paper and trying to define what you want your culture to be. You could start by asking a few simple questions such as why do we do what we do (i.e. why does the business exist?) and what do you believe in (i.e. what are your values?) These types of questions will help you to formulate what exactly it is you are trying to achieve and set you on the right path to define your company culture and values. Live and breathe your values Once you’ve decided on your values and communicated these to your employees, make sure you don’t stop there. Simply hanging your values on the office wall or adding them to your website won’t cut it! You need to ensure that your values are a part of your everyday employee experience. For example, having annual awards based on your values where employees have the opportunity to nominate their colleagues is a great way to ensure that your values aren’t forgotten and aligning values to the processes that allow you to assess employee performance. It’s not all about the money Don’t let the perceived costs associated with building a culture put you off. Sadly, it’s true that we can’t all afford to provide a subsidised café or free yoga sessions for our employees but there are many things that you can implement for free which can have a positive impact and since the pandemic we’ve seen all kinds of creative ideas such as walking meetings, coffee and doughnut deliveries to employees before an all company call…..be creative and think about what you can do that will help build a foundation for the type of company you want to be. It’s also not all about freebies! Free perks are great (fruit, lunch, beer fridge, pool tables etc.) but this will only engage employees for so long. Ultimately your employees will want to know where the business is going and how they are contributing to getting it there. This means communicating regularly and effectively with your teams through team updates, feedback sessions, performance management processes and so on. Without this there is a higher chance that your employees will become disenchanted and leave! Make sure you are hiring the right people The people that you hire in the early stages of your business not only impact your business growth but will also directly impact how your culture develops. Don’t be tempted to overlook the importance of a candidate’s impact on your culture when interviewing . Yes, skills and experience are important but make sure you look at all aspects when assessing your candidates. We’ve seen many clients have longer term success when they don’t hire the candidate that is a 100% match to the skills and knowledge requirements, but instead hire the candidate with a 75% skills and experience match but who’s a good cultural fit. It’s these types of individuals that will be able to grow with your business (but remember to not recruit clones as this will stunt your business in the longer term) Break the mould! Although it’s always tempting to go with what you know , try to avoid hiring a mini me! You should always be on the lookout for individuals that will bring diversity to your business, whether that is with their opinions, experience or background. Always keep an open mind and push yourself to consider candidates that will bring something new to the company dynamic. This approach will mean that you are bringing diversity to your culture. And finally... Remember that each and every business has its own unique culture and it should be developed from the very nuts and bolts of what you do. Culture matters right from the beginning so be intentional about it and make sure that you build your business around the culture you want to cultivate. If you are struggling to get off the starting blocks when defining your company culture or if you know the culture you want to achieve but need help implementing it within your business, contact us to see how we can help .