6 Tips to Creating a Unique Company Culture

Creating and fostering a unique bond within a group has always been a challenge, as different expectations and individuals often go head-to-head against each other and undermine precious efforts to achieve a common goal.

It is even more important when this group is the team you hired to conduct a business—your business. No matter what the size of your company, creating a unique company culture that drives people to give their best is a primary goal.

We all know that a good company culture has become increasingly important. But first, what does it mean?

As a term it is quite vague. However, a good (great) company culture is first and foremost about people.

Brian Chesky, the CEO of Airbnb, describes it as the following: “Culture, is simply a shared way of doing something with passion.”

We know that passion encourages personal involvement, dedication, seriousness and last but not least, productivity.

Indeed, a solid culture is what will make a business last a hundred years, whether it’s an international corporation like Coca Cola or a mom-and-pop shop that is still standing there after several decades.

Related Article: What is Company Culture & Why Does It Matter?

No matter the scope of your organization, a company culture helps boost your employees’ engagement, retention, motivation, performance, morale, and ultimately satisfaction, and involves more than a hip work space and attractive perks. It is about gratitude and recognition. What is more, it does not have to cost you money.

Here are some practical tips to help you create a unique company culture:

Tip 1: Encourage and reward initiative

By rewarding hard work and initiative publicly you make a statement. Be generous with your rewards—big or small ones. Your employees will give it back to your organization with hard work.

Examples: Give one of your employees a standing ovation from all your co-workers to thank them for their small efforts. Give your employee formal and hand-signed recognition letters. Give your deserving employees a trophy. Run a press release telling how you grew thanks to that employee. Create a thank you video for an employee and put it on YouTube for anyone to watch; this is great PR, too. Feature your employee in your company newsletter.

Tip 2: Encourage respect for each other’s work

Always crediting someone for their work installs a sentiment of worthiness among your employees. An individual who feels secure about his abilities and his place within his team is a worker that you can count on. Nothing good comes from vulnerability.

Examples: Introduce thank you notes. Create a company scrapbook: each month—you can start a new page with the achievements of the previous month, and your employees will be a part of History. Say “thank you” out loud—this word is powerful. Have an appreciation jar visible to anyone where you credit employees for their findings or excellent work. Involve your employees in various meetings, presentations, trainings and discussions, even if it is not their area of expertise.

Tip 3: Provide the means to grow

Always provide the means for your employees to grow and do not penalize their mistakes. Learn to trust and your employees will deliver better quality work. Recognition and validation makes your employee believe in you and in your company.

Examples: Supply books for your team. Pay for a magazine subscription. Introduce flexible hours. Pay for conferences and workshops for your employees. Mentor a promising employee. Hire a personal coach. Brainstorm together on a regular basis.

Tip 4: Encourage interactions between different teams

Bringing people from different teams together helps everyone understand what they are a part of and how they contribute to company growth, rather than working solely on their tasks. Make your employees comfortable around each other, be it in a casual and friendly setting or at the work place.

Examples: Take your team to a tropical island and discuss the progress of your company. If you cannot afford it, go for a getaway weekend nearby that would work fine as well. Start a football team.

Organize a pizza party. Have Friday evening beers. Swap desks for a day. Take your teams to a local History tour. Organize a cooking contest. Create an everyday cleaning nomination – one person has to nominate who cleans the kitchen today, then that person nominates another employee tomorrow.

Tip 5: Encourage having fun at work

Allowing and providing distraction at your work place makes your employees happy to come to work and creates more intimate bonds. The idea is to build relationships, camaraderie and respect among your team. Encouraging fun should inspire creativity rather than distract your employees. A good way to keep the right balance is to introduce weekly or monthly goals and let your employees manage their own workflow and fun times, rather than policing what they do or do not do.

Examples: Have a video game room. Buy a Ping-Pong table. Create funny inter-teams’ contests. Throw a Halloween party. Celebrate birthdays.

There are many other unique ways to create a company culture that is unique and stimulates the productivity of your employees.

You can find more ideas on this very interesting Quora Thread: What are the coolest startup culture hacks you’ve heard of.

More food for thought here and here.

Finally, what motivates people to work, contrary to conventional wisdom, is not money, neither is it joy. Most of us thrive by making constant progress and feeling a sense of purpose.

Championing personal growth and nurturing an environment for it in your work place is what will make the difference. Take your time to build and refine your very own culture over time and your business will undoubtedly reach for the stars.