What Are The Three Tenants Of Your Company Culture?

Company culture is the backbone of every successful business. It encompasses everything, from your values and beliefs to how you work together as a team to achieve goals. Some people will call this organizational culture, employee experience, or company values.

A strong company culture can improve employee morale, increase productivity, encourage employee retention, and even attract top talent to your organization.

But what exactly defines a great company culture? In truth, there are a few ways to approach good company culture. It starts with prioritizing employee happiness, organizational alignment, and engagement.

In this blog post, we’ll explore what a healthy culture looks like and how to create your own strong organizational culture. If you would like more information about aligning your workforce around performance goals and making great hires that fit your existing culture, you can click here to schedule a demo of Trakstar.

What is Company Culture?

At its core, company culture refers to the shared beliefs, values, behaviors, and practices that shape how people work together within an organization. It’s essentially the personality of your workplace environment. Work culture tends to have a bad connotation. Still, healthy company culture can be one of your most significant selling points when trying to keep employees (it was a massive win for people during the “Great Resignation) and team building.

What Does a Good Company Culture Look Like?

As a business leader, you may be asking what company culture looks like and whether or not your organization’s culture is good. 

Some common elements of successful company cultures include open communication channels between management and staff members, a focus on collaboration rather than competition, recognition for outstanding work achievements, and opportunities for professional development and growth within the organization. Most importantly, a good corporate culture centers around employee experience and goal alignment.

Ultimately, every business has unique cultural traits that make it stand out from other organizations in its industry. Understanding what sets your company apart is key to creating an exceptional workplace environment where employees feel valued and motivated to succeed.

Why Does Company Culture Matter?

Company culture is the shared values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors that shape a company’s work environment. It’s not just about having a ping pong table in the break room, a single person running human resources, or free snacks in the kitchen. Rather, it’s about creating an atmosphere where employees feel valued and supported in their current jobs, and they have the chance to grow within the organization.

A positive company culture can help attract top talent and increase employee retention rates. When employees feel happy at work, they are more likely to stay with their employer long-term, which reduces recruitment costs for companies. It also lends to business success, a better work environment, and fulfilling a company’s mission.

Think of Company Culture As A Selling Point

A strong company culture can be a powerful tool for attracting top talent to your business for many reasons:

• Workplace culture in job descriptions attracts more applications
• In interviews, toxic company culture is quickly apparent
• Existing employee happiness is catching for new hires
• Business success attracts better new hires

Having a great culture matters to your existing employees as well. 

It can help you build a more cohesive team and improve employee engagement and satisfaction. Conversely, weak or negative company culture can lead to high turnover rates and poor employee performance.

Furthermore, a strong company culture can also increase productivity, as employees tend to be more engaged and motivated when they feel connected to their workplace. This translates into better customer service experiences and increased revenue growth for businesses.

A positive company culture helps establish trust between management and staff, which leads to open communication channels where ideas can be shared freely without fear of retribution or ridicule. This could be done in the form of an employee survey, through candid employee feedback, or through conversations with an HR leader.

Establishing a strong company culture is essential for businesses looking to attract top talent while retaining current staff members who are productive and motivated by fostering an engaging work environment based on shared values and belief systems. If you need help, it starts by investing in performance management software that prioritizes happy employees, a strong culture, and overall alignment around goals. Click here to schedule a demo of Trakstar to get started.

Why Should Your Company Culture Have Three Tenants?

Your company culture is the foundation of your organization’s success. It affects every aspect of your business, from employee morale to customer satisfaction. But simply having a culture isn’t enough – it needs to have structure and purpose. That’s where the three tenants come in (or whatever number you determine as the best possible number to create a strong organizational culture).

By establishing three core values or principles that guide your company culture, you create a shared vision among employees and clarify what behaviors are expected and encouraged. With only one or two tenants, there may need to be a clearer understanding of how they all work together to shape the overall culture. However, having too many company tenants can be unhealthy, leading to a diluted company value and being pulled in too many directions. One team member may value one tenant, while another may value a different one. It’s virtually impossible for people to live in too many spaces.

Having three tenants also allows for balance within the culture. For example, if one tenant focuses on innovation and another on teamwork, then a third could center around accountability or integrity. 

By limiting yourself to just three tenants, you make them more memorable and easier to communicate across the organization. This leads to greater consistency in behavior and decision-making at all levels. Don’t leave the decision-making up to the CEO or Human Resources; it should be something that all employees agree on – after all, they are the ones who promote a positive work culture every single day.

Think About The Core of Your Business

So take some time to determine what should be at the heart of your company culture by identifying its three core tenets – it’ll help ensure everyone is working towards common goals while reducing ambiguity around expectations!

If you aren’t sure, run an employee survey! Ask them what matters, what keeps them coming to work, and what you can do to promote employee happiness. They will give you answers!

Determining Organizational Culture Tenants

Determining the tenants of your company culture can be a challenging task. It is important to identify the core values and beliefs that are shared among all employees and guide their behavior in the workplace. To determine these tenants, it is essential to involve everyone in the process.

One way to do this is by conducting surveys or focus groups with your team members. Ask them what they think are the most important values for your organization and how they believe those values should be reflected in daily operations. This can help you identify any areas where there may be discrepancies between management and staff perceptions of company culture. You can do this using employee engagement software or an engagement survey tool like the one we have within Trakstar Perform.

Another approach could be to analyze past successes and failures within your organization, looking for patterns that reflect underlying beliefs or values held by employees. This retrospective analysis can provide valuable insights into what has worked well in the past, as well as areas where improvements could be made. Talk to tenured employees, happy employees, employees who are at risk of leaving, and Human Resources leaders.

Ultimately, determining company culture tenants requires both introspection and collaboration from all levels of an organization. By involving everyone and committing to ongoing evaluation, you can create a strong foundation for a positive work environment that aligns with your business goals and attracts top talent.

How to Build a Stronger Company Culture

Building a strong company culture takes time and effort, but it is worth it. Here are some tips on how to build a stronger company culture:

1. Define your company values: Determine what values you want to promote and embody as a company. These should be more than just words on paper; they should guide decision-making and behavior.

2. Lead by example: Company leaders play an important role in setting the tone for the rest of the organization. Make sure you model the behaviors that support your defined values.

3. Involve employees: Company culture shouldn’t be something that’s dictated from above; it should involve everyone within the organization. Encourage input from all levels of employees when defining and refining your culture.

4. Create opportunities for connection: A strong sense of community is essential for building a positive company culture, so find ways to connect employees with each other both inside and outside of work.

5. Celebrate successes (big and small): Recognize individual achievements as well as team accomplishments regularly to foster positivity around shared goals.

By focusing on these areas, you can help create an environment where people feel motivated, supported, valued, and engaged – ultimately leading to better retention rates, higher productivity levels, and happier teams overall!

Explaining Company Culture to Your Employees

Once you have determined the three tenants of your company culture, it is important that you explain them clearly to your employees. This will ensure that everyone in the company understands what the culture stands for and what behaviors are expected of them.

One way to do this is by holding a meeting or presentation where you can introduce and discuss the company culture with your team. Use real-life examples or scenarios to help illustrate how each tenant relates to day-to-day operations.

Another effective tool is providing new hires with onboarding materials that outline the company culture from their first day. This could include an employee handbook, training videos, or even a welcome packet.

It’s also important to lead by example as management. Ensure that managers demonstrate behaviors aligned with the company’s cultural values so employees see consistency between leadership and messaging.

By taking these steps, employees will better understand how they fit into the bigger picture of your organization and be motivated toward shared objectives related to workplace behavior and productivity.

Examples of Strong Organizational Cultures

Strong company cultures are those that embody the values and beliefs of the organization in every aspect of its operations. One example is Google, which places a premium on innovation and creativity. The company offers employees perks such as free food, gyms, and recreational spaces to encourage collaboration.

Another excellent example is Zappos, an online retailer known for its focus on customer service. The company provides extensive training to its employees to ensure they understand the importance of providing superior service. Zappos also has a unique organizational structure that empowers employees to make decisions independently.

Patagonia is another great example of a strong company culture. As an outdoor apparel brand with environmental activism at its core, Patagonia embodies sustainability in everything it does. The company encourages employees to prioritize work-life balance by offering flexible schedules and unlimited vacation time.

These examples demonstrate that when companies prioritize their values in all aspects of their operations – from recruitment to employee engagement – they can create strong cultures that attract top talent and foster long-term success.

Ready to Improve Company Alignment?

A strong company culture is a vital element of any successful organization. It sets the foundation for how employees interact with each other, customers, and work assignments. By defining your company’s culture tenants, you can create a framework that guides behavior and decision-making throughout the organization.

Investing in your people through development programs and recognizing their hard work publicly creates positive reinforcement. To get started, schedule a demo of Trakstar today.