HOW TO CREATE A STRONG. CORPORATE CULTURE What's worked for us

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Noah Cunningham
8 years ago
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1 HOW TO CREATE A STRONG CORPORATE CULTURE What's worked for us

2 CORPORATE CULTURE INTRO Welcome! As you go through this program, you will become one of us and get involved with the culture of our company. Why do we want you to do so? Our culture helps us engage employees in activities and discussions, it helps us focus on our customers, it allows us to grow together as a company, and it helps us get comfortable around each other and trust one another. But above all, it helps us remember who we are, and why we do things the way we do them. Our goal today is to let you in on what has worked for us. We hope that this information will give you and your co-workers a good starting point to create a corporate culture that works for you and that will make your company and its atmosphere that much better. So, let s get started! Here is your step by step guide to getting you started on creating a strong company culture... In this guide we tell you about our company s culture, what we ve incorporated as part of the company and we ll give you as much knowledge possible so you can hit the ground running.

3 LET'S START 1. Culture committee With how busy everyone is, it is easy to forget about culture and put it aside. That s why one of the first things we did, was to create a culture committee. The DOMA culture committee is formed by eight employees, representing the different departments. Their goal is to make sure DOMA s culture stays at the forefront of the company and that we continue to live it, believe in it and work on it every day we come to work. Your culture committee members should: Have a clear understanding of the company s mission, vision and values. Have an alignment between their personal values and the corporate values Be and act as role models to the rest of employees Have the motivation to make the company a better one.

4 2. Look at where you are... Then it is time to asses the current culture so you can find out what is working and what isn t working. We accomplished this step by sending out a company survey asking all employees questions specific to the environment at DOMA, their jobs, their overall happiness, etc. Here are some of the questions we used. From this survey, Identify problem areas, highlight specific things employees would like to see happen and pay attention to any feedback provided (positive or negative) 3...And where you wanna be As with anything else in life, if you don t know what it is you want to accomplish, how can you make it happen? So we covered the entire wall in our conference room with contact paper and started writing ideas on sticky notes for things we wanted to accomplish. These varied all across the board. From suggestions on company values, employee recognition opportunities and ideas, to extra-curricular activities, community opportunities, and facility improvements. Need some ideas? These are some of the ones we came up with... And remember, anything is fair game when brainstorming.

5 4. Do your research Since you are reading this, it is fair to say you have already started the education/research process...you are well on your way! Right after joining DOMA s culture committee one of the first things that was provided to us were resources. Some were culture-related articles, some were videos from other companies who had very strong and unique corporate cultures and some were books. These were some of them: Getting Naked (Patrick Lencioni) Corporate Culture and Performance (John Kotter) Carrots & Sticks Don t Work ( Paul L. Marciano) Zappos Video ( Southwest Video ( 5. And build a plan! Now that you have employees feedback, are well educated on culture and have done some brainstorming, it is time to bring it all together and build a plan. While doing so, keep in mind why people want to come and stay at your company, think about the employees, customers, the work environment, and existing deliverables. And one step at a time, make it happen!

6 6. What s the plan? Our plan was to start focusing and addressing (1) something that would have a big impact, (2) something that although smaller, could show immediate results, and (3) the biggest challenge. 7. Big impact- Our corporate values One of our biggest accomplishments was changing our core-values and bringing them down from 9 to 4. Why do that you may wonder? Well, a lot of us weren t remembering the 9 core values and therefore weren t living them. The new 4 core values really represent who we are, what we do and where we wanna be. What about you? What is one thing you can do that would have a big impact on your company? Is it your values? If you are not sure, try this little exercise. Stop 5-10 people in the hallway and ask them what your company values are. After all, if they can t tell you what they are without looking them up, how can they be living them? But remember, just because we changed them, doesn t mean you also have to do it. If your current values are right for your company, make sure you plan activities around those. More on that in a bit...

7 8. Small, easy thing- Acknowledgment and celebration of employee birthdays. The next step was to implement something smaller, that didn t require a lot of effort and that would show immediate results. What was it? Doing something special to celebrate our employees birthdays. All it required was approval to buy sweets (usually cake and cupcakes, sometimes ice cream or pastries) on a monthly basis, when we all get together in the Cafe and celebrate everyone s birthday for the month. What about you? Do you do anything special on employees birthdays? Do you decorate the office? Maybe do a company celebration lunch? 9. Challenge-Monthly Town Hall Meetings For this one, it is important to take a step back and look at the survey results. Did you get feedback on what isn t working or can improve? In our case, employees felt communication needed to be more open, so we focused on that! After all, it is not all about perks. Working in a place where there is good and open communication is just as important as anything else. So we implemented monthly town hall meetings where our leadership team addresses the company with updates, news, challenges, new-hires, etc. Time for you to figure out what your challenges are and how you can address them...

8 10. And now what? Are we done? Not even close! Culture doesn t change overnight and two events certainly won t change it. No matter how good your company is, or how much it has improved, you need to keep working on your culture... Power Day: implement a little healthy competition, handout prizes for the top producers and for those with the highest quality standards, and boost morale with some fun. Celebrate core value. For this one we celebrated innovation, and encouraged DOMA employees, customers and partners to submit new and innovative ideas, concepts and processes to help improve DOMA and our technology platform. Go back to your survey responses, take a look at the ideas you wrote down in step 3 and keep building and working on your plan. But before I let you go, here are some other things we have done that may give you good ideas. Good luck!! Chili Cookout Plan fun events with your employees and their families. DOMA kickball team. Plan to do activities or play sports outside of work Celebrate company achievements, contract wins, etc. Recognize employees on a work well done. Help out in the community.

9 RATE US! To help us create content that provides value to you Poor Good Our goal is to create content that provides value to you, so please let us know how we did. You can rate us 1-5 in a matter of seconds here! Your feedback will go directly to our Marketing team. They d love seeing all 5 stars but any other rating will provide them good feedback for future materials. Thank you for downloading this e-book and best of luck with your company s culture. Excellent

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