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Why is company culture important?

Why is company culture important?

10.11.2022 | Opinion Back To Blog Posts

Staff that enjoy working in a company will tell you there are certain things that give it its own special character as an organisation. Company culture is integral to the personality of a business organisation. It determines the environment that staff members will work in, day in, day out. It’s what makes a workplace unique, and stems from the company values, traditions, colleague interactions, and attitudes.

Employees are the beating soul of every business. A company’s ability to retain and hire top talent will depend on the company culture it manages to generate. A strong company culture lifts employee engagement and enthusiasm and fosters a healthy exchange of communication and feedback between colleagues.

A positive company culture is also something that will be picked up on by customers. Staff embedded in a positive workplace culture where they feel valued, appreciated, and incentivised by their employer will be motivated to work hard to deliver and ensure customers receive the highest levels of service.

Creating a genuine culture of care and understanding that each employee is an individual bringing their own unique character are key tenets of the supportive workplace culture we have here at Secure Screening Services and an essential part of our success as a business.

Given that we put so much effort into developing the company culture at Secure Screening Services, our staff are in a perfect position to find you the best possible candidates for your employment vacancies. We put together this piece to explain more about why company culture is so important.

What is company culture?

Let’s start with the basics. What does it mean when we talk about ‘company culture’? Essentially, company culture refers to how things are carried out around the workplace. It describes the attitudes and behaviours of a company and its employees. The culture and way of doing things should be woven into a company’s internal and external communications.

The company culture will be summed up your business’s core values and code of ethics. However, it also underlies how employees should behave on a standard workday. Company culture impacts day-to-day workplace activities such as:

  • Working arrangements. Are employees expected to work remotely from home or attend an office in person?
    Office layout
  • Dress code – what can you wear at work?
  • Work social events
  • Hiring and firing and disciplinary procedures
  • There’s much more to the workplace setting than looking at a screen all day in an office. Creating an excellent company culture is not something that happens by magic. Companies today must ensure they devote time and effort to help achieve it.

Types of company culture

There can be a lot of variation in how companies like their employees to behave at work. But what are the different approaches to company culture?

Collaborative culture

Teamwork makes the dream work, and collaborative culture is mainly concerned with employee participation and creating robust company morale. A collaborative company culture leads to higher levels of employee engagement and communication between team members being more transparent and fluid.

We are proud to operate a strong collaborative model. We teach new employees about our company culture and practices right from the get-go during the onboarding process.

Our team members enjoy working within a friendly atmosphere and have bundles of expertise to help you navigate the screening process and ensure you hire the very best talent out there. We feel this collaborative company culture is the best way to approach modern business and leaves us well-placed to achieve results for our clients.

Hierarchy culture

Hierarchy culture is a more traditional based way of running a business. There is a clear ‘chain of command’ for employees. Companies with a hierarchical culture have clear distinctions between different management levels. Every employee knows what is expected of them when they enter the workplace.

One key benefit of hierarchy company culture is that it provides a business with continuity and stability so staff know where they stand. However, one of the disadvantages of this approach is that it can come across as not caring enough about employee welfare, potentially lowering staff engagement.

Market culture

Market culture is mostly geared around company profits and results. Competitive-minded individuals tend to thrive and perform well in businesses run with a market culture heavily focused on hitting targets.

A downside is that this company culture can create a high staff turnover rate, which is highly disruptive. However, at Secure Screening Services, we are a happy bunch who work hard to keep hold of our top talent so we can provide customers with a bespoke service that in terms of quality is miles ahead of anything our competitors offer!

Innovative culture

An innovative company culture that constantly churns out new groundbreaking business ideas helps to drive rapid growth. As a result, successful productive start-up businesses owe their success to an innovative workplace culture that encourages entrepreneurialism.

The digital revolution in recent years has led to the fast rise of tech start-ups. A staggering 665,495 start-ups were founded in 2019-2020, that’s more than one every minute!

How company culture affects employee engagement

In a strong company culture, employees always feel valued and empowered. Employee engagement is when staff invest their time and effort to contribute towards producing positive outcomes for an organisation. Fully engaged employees feel part of a team, included, and emotionally invested to work hard, not simply because they’re being paid to do so. High levels of employee engagement are the result of a healthy company culture.

At Secure Screening Services, our employees feel engaged. This frees up their minds to focus wholeheartedly on delivering outstanding employment screening services for our customers.

How to create company culture

Open communication and investing in your employees are key pinnacles to creating a healthy company culture. If your employees seem generally demotivated throughout the team, it’s time to go back to the drawing board. Think about how you can create a positive company culture where staff feel motivated and energised.

Here at Secure Screening Services, we’re all about making a real effort to create and maintain a strong company culture and make everyone who works on our team feel welcome. With this in mind, we regularly organise exciting events that encourage employee bonding, such as social gatherings outside work, fun quizzes, and group lunches.

We believe that happy employees make a happy workplace. Having satisfied employees helps us do an even better job of guiding you through the screening process so you are able to hire gifted employees that will ensure the long-term success of your company.

Aside from salary increases, there are loads of other perks you can offer to incentivise your employees and create a sturdy culture. This can include things such as extra days of holiday, birthdays off, events tickets and store gift cards, investing in their training and professional development, paid travel, complimentary food, and gym passes. You’d be amazed at how effective some fun perks can be at motivating your employees.

How to improve company culture

Businesses with a negative company culture must make sure they turn it around and improve things as quickly as possible. Culture and staff turnover are interconnected. Recent research found that the company culture of 63% of UK businesses suffered as a result of high staff turnover.

Keys steps to help improve company culture

Changing the culture in a workplace doesn’t happen overnight, it takes time and effort. Here are some things you can do to help turn a bad culture into a thriving and positive one:

  • Create opportunities for employees to connect with one another outside the workplace environment. Think work parties and team lunches. Mixing things up a little will provide a workforce with some fun and time to unwind
  • Prioritise transparency and open communication between employees to build trust and valuable relationships throughout the team
  • Ensure employee achievements are fully recognised by creating weekly ‘shout outs’ and nominations from fellow employees, this helps to develop a good sense of team morale
  • Offer clear career advancement pathways. This allows employees to envisage how their careers can progress internally within your company and could improve staff retention rates
  • Employers can put staff on training and development courses to exemplify how they are fully committed to investing in the people working for them
  • Provide flexible work schedules to accommodate employees’ individual needs and increase staff engagement levels
  • Collective successes such as reaching milestones as a company should be duly rewarded and celebrated together

How pre-employment screening can benefit your company culture

Pre-employment screening helps verify a person’s credentials for a job application and ensures that each applicant meets the pre-conditions of employment. The individuals working in a company mould the company culture, and not the other way around. Doing your due diligence to help you hire the right people will benefit your company culture.

A crucial part of successfully building up a positive and productive company culture in 2022 is making sure you carry out pre-employment screening checks in the proper manner.

You want to hire individuals whose personal values and beliefs align nicely with your core company values and the work culture you’re looking to create. Pre-employment screening methods such as DBS checks and social media screening can give you a vital insight into a candidate’s moral compass and values.

Having professional experience and certain qualifications are prerequisites for some specific roles. Unwittingly employing individuals without them won’t just cause inefficiencies in your business, but could also pose safety risks. The employment and qualification verification aspect of the pre-employment screening process will improve your company culture by reassuring you that a candidate is an honest and trustworthy individual.

The screening process is also important for your company’s reputation. A smooth screening process shows candidates that you are a well run organised professional outfit, regardless of whether they get the job or not.

At Secure Screening Services, we provide employers with seamless pre-employment screening packages that make the most of the latest technology available. For instance, the automated system we use for Right to Work checks uses biometric verification technology, meaning the system is reliable, reduces the likelihood of human error, and we can process Right to Work checks right away!

Looking for a reliable service to help you pick the most suitable candidates for your roles? Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at Secure Screening Services today. Email hello@securescreeningservices.com, fill out a contact form on our website, or call us on 01243 767 868 to chat with one of our friendly advisors. Our professional approach is one of the reasons customers turn to us to carry out their screening time after time.