According to Gallup, over 70 per cent of US employees are not engaged at work.

Whether it has been consciously defined or not, every business has a company culture, and while culture has long been considered by some sectors such as the tech industry, it’s increasingly being recognised more today.

[Tweet “87% of HR and industry leaders believe that Employee engagement and culture is a top challenge.”]

Not only this, as reported in the Deloitte’s 2105 Global Human Capital Trends report, employee engagement and culture was the “the No. 1 challenge around the world.” 87% of more than 3,300 HR and industry leaders believed that the issue is a top challenge.

What Is Company Culture?

Company culture is the shared behaviors, practices and values of how things get done at a company.

Every company has an intrinsic culture that is the result of a range of contributing factors, such as: company visions, systems, values, norms, language, assumptions, principles, habits and beliefs.

Companies that can build, reinforce and leverage a unique culture that delivers sustained performance benefits have already successfully created a strong culture foundation.

Why Is It Important?

Having a good company culture can be incredibly beneficial. A strong company culture can help keep employees happy, open, engaged, motivated and ultimately make them more productive.

On the other hand, a poor company culture can cause motivational issues, bullying, overwork, irresponsibility and loss of staff.

A good company culture can help ensure employees feel more valued and invested in the company. Similarly a company culture of honesty and openness will ensure that small problems and mistakes are dealt with openly before becoming too serious.

How To Create A Strong Company Culture

If you haven’t already, you should define your company culture. Or if you have, now is a good idea to re-examine it.

Create a set of guiding values. These should include principles around the individual, such as being keen to innovate or owning up to mistakes, and also about the business, such as always having a start-up mentality and investing in employee growth.

How To Monitor It

Unlike other business metrics such as profits or attendance, company culture can be difficult to define, let alone measure. Regarded as a soft topic, it can be somewhat elusive.

There are, however, a number of different areas that you can pay attention to:

• Communication
• Support
• Innovation
• Performance focus
• Agility
• Adaptability
• Environment
• Mission and value alignment
• Wellness
• Responsibility
• Collaboration

Productivity is another key metric. Employee monitoring software, such as KnowIT, can be very useful for giving an insight into individual employee’s productivity.

With the ability to monitor communications, it can also give you a great insight into how your employees are feeling. A lot of negative comments or communications and low productivity would be clear signs of the need to improve your company culture.

The software will also allow you to recognise and reward good work, a great principle for all strong company cultures.

To learn more, click here.