What does it mean to have a good “company culture”? Culture has become a such a buzzword, it’s hard to find a clear definition.  

We define culture as helping employees understand how they thrive in your organization.

In a larger organization, roles might be more clear-cut, but that doesn’t mean small businesses can’t have a strong company culture that continues and thrives as the business grows. The key to keeping your core values alive is communicating your values – over and over.  

We see many companies put their values in the handbook and then never talk about them again. If you don’t repeat your values, they will go silent. As a leader, over communicating is essential to keeping your team accountable to stay in line with company values.  

If you don’t feel like your values are being communicated, one of the ways to start is with new employees. Start the process early. If you view onboarding as your hospitality team – how you welcome new team members in your organization – they’ll have a clear view of what your company values. 

Electronic onboarding makes the process more about getting to know your company and less about checking off tasks. When new team members can fill out paperwork electronically, you can spend the first day talking about your values, handbook, roles and expectations – not shuffling through documents.  

In our office, you’ll see company values printed on all our office doors, and we highlight instances that company values are being lived out in our daily huddles, all-hands meetings, and in monthly check-ins. Keeping your team accountable for sticking to your company values is essential to making it an integral part of the company culture. If you have an employee that is going off the reservation, you have a responsibility to sit down with them. Don’t just expect things to get better.  

Every time we see a core value implemented, we want to celebrate that. When we see a behavior going against a core value, we want to address it. 

By being repetitious, your values incorporate and permeate your whole culture. If you haven’t gone through the process of defining your core values, it’s never too late. Listen to our episode of the One Step Better podcast on this topic to learn more: