How to Define and Implement Your Office Culture

These days, if you don’t have an appealing company culture, you can forget about attracting top talent. Office culture is defined as the environment you create for your employees, down to everything from the way your office is decorated to the core values and beliefs of the company at large. And while it may seem insignificant, this stuff matters a whole lot to your most-likely pool of applicants — millennials and Gen Z’ers — who repeatedly say they only want to work for companies that have a positive impact.

In fact, according to the 2019 Deloitte Global Millennial Survey, the vast majority of millennials and Gen Z’ers say they’d leave a company that didn’t align with their values. The study found that they’d ditch an employer that didn’t have a positive impact on local communities (74 percent say they’d leave), didn’t provide a motivating and stimulating work environment (73 percent say they’d leave) or didn’t prioritize diversity and inclusion (75 percent say they’d leave). The study also showed that work-life balance and flexible working practices are non-negotiables for the talent pool.

So, if you want to be at the top of your game and get the best of the best on your team, you’ve got to develop a workplace culture that caters to them. Here’s how.

1. Brainstorm with Leadership:
   

   Step one: Figure out what your company believes in. While surveying your workforce will be important, your organization’s core values should start at the top. That’s what being a leader is all about! Once you have a general idea of your cultural foundation, send out a survey to all of your employees to get a general idea of what they believe in and care about.

2. Create a Mission Statement:
   

   Once you’ve gathered the data, it’s time to put it into the official rulebook. Look to some game-changing companies to see what their mission statements are all about (remember, Google’s code of conduct famously used to say “don’t be evil”) and to get inspiration. Read good examples of company mission statements from Patagonia, TED and Life is Good.

3. Brand and Promote with Your Mission Statement:
   

   Having a mission statement does you no good if you don’t use it to guide your company! Post it around the office and make sure every department references it in their daily decision-making. Remember to feature it in your branding, especially if you’re hoping it will attract a higher caliber of talent to work for you. Lastly, be sure to create a designated page for it on your website (and share it on social media).

4. Hire with Your Mission Statement in Mind:
   

   Speaking of talent, your office culture is going to be really important when you’re deciding whom to hire. Now that you’ve got your mission set in stone, you can conduct “cultural fit” interviews, which include culture-focused questions in addition to aptitude-oriented ones. Some examples of culture fit interview questions include:

   1. Outside of work, what are you passionate about?
   2. How do you maintain a good work-life balance, even when you’re especially busy at work?
   3. What’s your view on co-worker relationships?
   4. In what kind of environment do you feel the happiest and productive?

5. Celebrate Your Culture with New Hires:
   

   You’ve now got a mission statement as well as branding and employees to support it! Congratulations! Make sure you celebrate your workplace culture with every single new hire by surprising them with unique onboarding gifts and activities. On their first day, give them some company swag coupled with something more lighthearted to demonstrate your culture and break the ice, such as some funny socks or a cute mug.

6. Designate Culture Captains:
   

   Perpetuating the culture of your workplace is important to ensure that it keeps its core values at the forefront as it rapidly grows and changes. But leadership can’t always be on the ground ensuring that culture is infused in every factor of business. That’s where your culture captains come in. These workers serve as culture representatives who can keep your mission statement alive through events, games, and awards.

7. Plan Regular Culture Events:
   

   Have your culture captains set up a monthly employee activity that involves either the whole company or the whole department, depending on the size of your operation. Getting together periodically for non-work events brings your team closer together and solidifies your workplace culture. Activities like bowling, pro sports games, escape rooms and volunteering make awesome alternatives to the standard happy hour.

8. Reward Top Performers:
   

   When you see an employee or department excelling in a certain area that adheres to your company’s core values, reward them! This is the best way to perpetuate workplace culture so it’s something that your entire crew adopts. Consider instituting a monthly culture-focused award and making the prize something everybody really wants, like an extra day of paid vacation or a gift card to the best restaurant in town. Don’t skimp! The better the prize, the more your workforce is likely to take it seriously.

Here’s the thing: All prospective employees want an appealing office culture, which means that modern operations feel the need to manufacture it, and that tends to come off as forced or fake. Plus, the applicants you probably want to hire don’t pay attention to things that they don’t deem authentic. The most important thing to keep in mind while you’re building out your culture is to center it around the things you and your workforce actually care about. Be authentic and reap the rewards!

Guest Post: About the Author

Josette is the Marketing & E-Commerce Associate at The Sock Drawer. She is known as the person you want helping you, who approaches each little detail thoughtfully but also has a strong sense of humor and a whip-smart attitude. Outside of work, she loves to dance, hang out with her cool husband and kids, and inject her upbeat energy everywhere she goes!