So, how to keep it on track and making an impact? 

Here are a few ways you can proactively maintain your company culture in a world of constant change. 

Values, values, values! 

Your mission and values are your foundation. Without knowing them and consciously adhering to them, your business will end up a giant, mangled, confused mess. Have meaningful values that clearly communicate to employees what you stand for and what’s expected of them. 

But don’t just stick them on your website to gather dust. Create an employee handbook for your new hires and encourage the behaviours and conversations needed to live these values in the everyday. 

Focus on your employees 

Your employees are the people who ​express your culture and values in day-to-day life. But if we’ve learned anything from the past few years, it’s how much employee needs can and have changed. 

For example – a formerly rigid, 9-5 in-office organisation using archaic technology may have since adopted a flexible, remote-first culture that relies on cutting edge tech, manager trust, and autonomy to work effectively, due to overwhelming employee demand.

Focusing on your people means you can consciously shift your culture to meet their physical and inner needs in changing external environments, and actively communicate it at multiple touchpoints. It’s critical to educate employees during onboarding and with continuous learning that supports their development of essential skills to succeed in your evolving organisation. 

Over communicate (consistently) 

Your culture should and can be communicated at every touchpoint in the employee lifecycle, from recruitment and onboarding to offboarding (on every medium). And while we’re specifically talking about culture messaging here, remember that sometimes actions speak louder than words. Culture is the lived experience! 

Get your leaders on board demonstrating how it’s done, so others can easily follow. 

Focus on your culture long game 

Company culture is a long game. If you let it fall by the wayside, it will take a significant change effort to recalibrate your workforce back to where you desire (potentially, causing much distrust and disruption in the process). What chaos! 

Instead, create a flexible plan to maintain and/or manage its evolution, so it can remain competitive, relevant, and meaningful to employees as internal and external environments change over time. Consider introducing hiring and onboarding guidelines, culture training (along with a regular review process), and open and continuous employee feedback loops to help you keep your ​finger on the culture pulse before there’s anarchy. 

Company culture is much more than quirky perks and casual Fridays. It’s also of great strategic value to your business, so should always be maintained with intention and care.