Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about company culture. In 2013 Club Solutions has begun to grow steadily, bringing on new employees, both on the creative editorial side and in our dynamic sales side. When more and more people come aboard, things around your club or office can begin to change ever so slightly.
Positive change for a company can be great. However, growth isn’t always positive. For Club Solutions it has been necessary, and the growing team has helped bring a positive attitude and help our small team truly develop a stronger culture.
Culture is more to a company than one might imagine. Ben Huh, the founder of the website Cheezburger, raised $30 million in venture capital in 2011. The company boomed from 45 people to 90 employees in nine months. That change can be drastic to a company culture. Moreover, the additions to the team weren’t exactly positive. In Q1 of 2013, Cheezburger received its first loss as an organization. Losses can be bad for company culture, but they can also have insane side effects. In Huh’s case, it meant flying home from Spain and firing 24 people.
I recently read an article discussing the growth of a start-up business that crossed the 100-employee mark. The owner/founder couldn’t walk through the company anymore and know everyone they saw. Additionally, they no longer knew how to act in the environment. Their reaction to the company strongly affected the company culture.
I know some of you have more than 100 employees, and some have more than 100 locations with thousands of employees. Regardless, each location must have a culture that drives its employees to be great. Here are nine strategies to help improve company culture:
1) Possess precise roles. People aren’t the same as the catchall you put your keys and spare change into at your house. People strive for certain objectives in life that fulfill their need and help them excel at certain tasks. Hire people for positions, not to cover a multitude of “whatever you need today.”
2) Develop objectives. As an owner/founder you probably have memories of those long nights where you were doing a multitude of things, working on several objectives. However, employees don’t operate like entrepreneurs. They focus well on objectives and completing tasks. Set goals and objectives for employees and divisions to create growth and positivity.
3) Reward completions. Setting objectives can be crucial. However, how you react when objectives are completed can be life or death. Rewarding completions not only makes employees happy, but it also ramps them up for new objectives.
4) Grow strategically. Growth is good. Actually, growth is very good — both financially and in employees. At Club Solutions our growth has been seen in both, which is extravagant — something to truly celebrate. However, in the four and a half years I’ve been editor of Club Solutions, I’ve watched the company grow strategically. We grow when the need is there, not when we have the money to throw at another position. Take a look at our December 2013 Issue and you’ll visually see the work of our newest investment.
5) Shrink with empathy. All businesses have good years and bad. It’s important that when you have bad years that you react with a certain level of empathy. You don’t need to flip out on your employees and then start letting heads roll. When Huh had to shrink his staff, he also reached out to other companies looking to hire and held a job fair at his own office. This is amazing for company culture. It says to employees that even if the company struggles or makes a bad executive decision that they will be taken care of, not just tossed out to make the numbers look better.
6) Be clear. Having a detailed “Why” factor isn’t just a great topic by Simon Sinek. If you don’t have a clear vision for why you started your company, your employees won’t either.
7) Respect time. If you have a good company culture your employees will work hard for you. If they work hard they will want their time away. It’s important that your employees are free to enjoy their lives away from the company. When an employee goes on vacation, let them be. It’s important that you have systems in place that will cover them while they are out. When they return, they will be ready to get back in the game.
8) Inspire learning. Some of your employees will bring a fresh education on board. Some will bring years of experience. Regardless, it’s important that you push employees to look for seminars and classes to help them further their knowledge, and in turn, your business.
9) Have fun! Have you ever performed the math to see how many hours you spend at work? If you only work 40 hours a week and don’t take time off, you’ll work 52 weeks a year, which comes to 2,080 hours a year of work. That means that if you enjoy eight hours of life on the weekends (hopefully more, but for the sake of math) you’ll only spend 832 hours non-work life on the weekend. It’s time to have fun. If you and your employees are going to spend 2,080 hours at location each year, it’s important that you have fun. Take time to relax as a team. Have open conversations about topics other than work. Laugh and do things on work hours that might be good for company morale, not just your bottom line.
Tyler Montgomery is the editor of Club Solutions Magazine. Contact him at tyler@clubsolutionsmagazine.com.
