Guide to Developing Your Own Company Culture

How to create an atmosphere that supports your business goals

By Tonya Vinas

1. Productivity: It's well documented that happy employees are productive employees. Creating a culture that encourages participation and buy-in will increase output.
2. Lower costs: Hirings and separations are expensive. Hanging on to good employees brings these costs way down. Also, companies with positive cultures tend to have fewer employee lawsuits, lower worker's-compensation costs and more satisfied customers.
3. Balanced resources: Time and money, two resources businesses never have enough of, must be consumed judiciously. By defining its culture, a company is setting up de facto defaults for how these two rare resources are to be used.

Here are some steps you can take to help you define your company's culture:

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Benchmark the big guys

Identify a large, successful company in your field and study the attributes of its company culture. Most large companies have this explained on their Web sites, sometimes called 'corporate values' or sometimes within a mission statement.

I recommend: Microsoft's mission and values statement is a good model for a culture of innovation; Avon's values and principles statement is a good model for companies marketing to a niche, such as women; P&G's purpose, values and principles statement is a good model for a diversified manufacturing company.

Make your space

How an office is organized and outfitted can play a huge part in company culture. Investing time and money for quality furniture and a custom layout will encourage employees to live up to the goals you set.

I recommend: Some office furniture companies have free information on basic office-planning concepts. Steelcase offers six two-page planning documents such as "support diverse workstyles" and "balance privacy." Knoll Inc. divides information on products by office type such as "freestanding" or "table-and-desk" based.

Hire your type

Write your culture into your job descriptions.

I recommend: Monster.com offers a job description template. SBA.gov offers a job description checklist. The Meridian Group offers an entire free section of its Web site on company culture, including hiring information.

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  If you think company culture is not important, consider that respected business groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce link a positive culture to high retention and successful recruiting.
• •  When designing your office, consider how necessary collaboration is. If your staff is primarily sales and is out with clients most of time, you may not need as much collaboration space as a research-based company.
• •  Design a benefits package that reflects your company culture. If 'work/life balance' is an important part of your culture, for instance, consider extended paid time off for maternity and medical leaves and/or flexible hours.
• •  Don't overvalue company culture when it comes to assessing job candidates. If you have a list of eight attributes that support your culture, and the candidate meets five but has superior experience and skills, he or she probably is worth hiring. Think about how the person will fit into the balance of employees within the culture.