How to maintain a corporate culture at a low cost
Corporate culture is a fashionable term for big business, and not without reason.
When the head is headed by a large enterprise with rich resources, it is much easier to use a huge budget to create a corporate culture, rather than walking and communicating with everyone personally.
Therefore, in Google employees are offered and massage chairs, places for sleep, free meals and electric cars for those who need them. Well, medical help, of course.
In Facebook, there is a bicycle shop (where they can also be repaired), a hairdresser, spaces with video games, a free sweetshop, a bakery.
The goodies parade is, of course, perfect, but let’s figure out how companies without a multi-million-dollar budget should be on the level? Corporate culture does not need to include spending on massages, burritos for breakfast and a bunch of other cool “buns”.
The very people
Yes, it is very difficult, but the construction of a correct and comfortable corporate culture begins with people. When you make a decision about hiring, avoid thinking about just taking a blank space by yourself. Try to understand whether employees are trainees and are good at teamwork, because such qualities as reliability and honesty cannot be taught. If a person has a bomb-like resume with a lot of experience, but he is so-so personality (read: shit) – immediately by.
The idea: always get acquainted with the colleagues of a potential employee, go to lunch, if possible, and try to understand whether the candidate fits in or not.
Encourage participation
When people volunteer, they create new social connections that benefit their professional lives. Arrange some joint activity, through which your employees will come together and they will be banal about what to discuss. For example, a volunteer clean-up – and you are well, and the park is near.
Let employees sometimes rest
Let’s understand right away: people are not robots. We live in a world where every second person has FOMO syndrome – Fear of missing out. We are afraid to miss important, we sit at work until the last.
Entrepreneurs should take care not only about business, but also about people. And make it clear that everyone has the right to work from home, the evening, when you can leave early. Everyone needs a rest and a change of scenery to come back with fresh strength.
For example, Power Public Relations completely closes the office from Christmas until New Year and allows employees to leave early on Fridays in the summer season. It sounds utopian!
Fun
It is easy to assume that any fun provokes indifference to work, people are distracted and everything, the day is lost. But a small game unites people and inspires them to topple the mountains together. Arrange breaks, play in the Mafia or Alias – not all after all have dinner for an hour, m? So you easily change the attitude of employees to work for the better.
The idea: even celebrate the birthdays of colleagues in all sorts of creative ways: arrange the whole team to fly in an airtube, for example. And meet the new employees on Fridays so that they do not have to be difficult to adapt and leave on their table a muffin on the occasion of their hiring. Sweetness can be inexpensive, but attention is always pleasant.
Acknowledging success can and should be
When something good happens, mark it! Everyone needs their little victory from time to time, and when employees know that one person was evaluated, that his achievement was noted, they know that they are appreciated. If the culture of the company includes awards for victories, whether it be patting on the back or premium – it’s already very cool.
In the film “The Trainee” someone’s (or common) success was celebrated with a blow to the small bell and loud applause. It is absolutely not costly, but it is very pleasant, probably, to approach and call this bell.
Let the love of work be contagious
Sometimes leaders think too much about behaving sternly and instilling fear. Such a typical BIG BOSS. ? We think that it is harmful. When your leader loves work, it burns with it – that’s where the corporate culture is.
So the advice is simple: learn to enjoy work, and show love for your business. Enthusiasm is contagious, and when team members know that they are following a leader who does not care, they will be more energetic.
Trust employees
When people know that they are trusted, they feel personal responsibility. Trust is one of the most important elements of a corporate culture: when employees do not feel that the leader is looking at them over their shoulder all the time, they feel more comfortable. And only in this way can you check effectiveness and commitment. When you let go.
Here we recall the vanilla quote “If you love – let go!” ?
Thanks to trust, the most incredible brainstorming can occur, which leads to steep ideas.
A good corporate culture should not cost a fortune. It’s about treating employees with respect, hiring the right people first, encouraging them as a person and working together as a team.