The Role of Corporate Culture in Small Business

Article

Every small business, even those with only a handful of employees, can benefit from cultivating a corporate culture that keeps people engaged and productive while improving business performance.

However, this isn’t the type of project that can be accomplished with a meeting and motivational speech. It’s about promoting specific mindsets employees have toward the company and their work — and that takes time to develop.

Small business leaders need to consciously plant seeds and put in consistent effort. It’s slow work, but these endeavors can help foster the good habits and strong values managers want their staff to embrace.

How important is company culture? It can play a vital role in the success of a small business, affecting the interactions and work outcomes of all departments, from accounting and finance to operations and marketing.

Bigger picture, it can also have a direct impact on hiring, employee retention, collaboration, policy compliance and communication, as well as the effectiveness of change management. And in the biggest picture, maintaining a positive, vibrant working climate can help small businesses weather economic downturns and shifts in the marketplace.

On the other hand, the effects of not promoting your small business’s workplace culture can spread fast. Leaving it undefined can lead to different managers and employee groups inadvertently creating their own micro-cultures. This can create huge differences in workflows and approaches to projects, practically ensuring that teams aren’t on the same page and opening up the potential for bitterness or unhealthy rivalries to creep in.

Your corporate culture should outline high-level expectations for employee behavior and how workers are expected to interact with coworkers and approach projects, problems and all aspects of the business. These definitions can be established within a mission statement, the business goals, the brand strategy and even a company logo.

But that’s just the beginning. For your vison of a corporate culture to take hold, you need buy-in from everyone in the company, and leaders need to be shining examples of how to put its values into action.

One way that small business leaders can help build and maintain a positive workplace culture is by including all members of the company when communicating short- and long-term company goals. Employees who clearly understand their company’s strategic objectives will be more motivated to help the company achieve them. And if conditions change or goals shift, keep everybody informed and on the same page throughout any changes.

Managers must also show their workers how their contributions support efforts to reach organizational goals. Seeing how their work impacts the company’s success helps staff buy-in and become not only advocates for your company culture, but also ambassadors of it and further examples for other employees to follow.

This strategy can also help improve retention and avoid employee turnover. When employees understand how they specifically make a difference in the organization, they are more likely to feel valued — and less likely to seek other opportunities. And if your company earns a reputation for having a great office culture, that can sway top talent in your favor when hiring.

Company culture may feel like an intangible concept that will grow organically from your leadership team, but that strategy is a recipe for unevenness or even letting negative principles take hold. Making steps to define a positive, collaborative, solution-oriented culture, show it in action and bring every person in the company into its fold is how best to make it shine.

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