A positive, favorable corporate culture helps establish your company as a great place to work. This makes it much easier to find and retain staff members. It also helps you to motivate your staff to remain productive and achieve great things.
Conversely, a negative corporate culture does just the opposite.
Hallmarks of a toxic corporate culture
A negative—or toxic—culture can make it much more difficult to find candidates willing to work for your company. Employees currently working within a toxic culture are likely unhappy and not operating at their full potential, or worse, looking for their next job.
The good news is, if you have a negative corporate culture, you can take steps to reverse it.
What Can You do to Make Your Company a Great Place to Work?
Develop a code of ethics and elect a staff member to maintain it.
Your code of ethics should include your company’s mission and vision, rules for conducting business with outside parties, what constitutes inappropriate behavior within the workplace, etc. Nominate a staff member (perhaps a member of human resources) to serve as the ambassador of company ethics. This person can also be the primary contact if employees notice an ethics violation.
Circulate the code of ethics to all employees.
On a regular basis, such as once per year, review the code with all employees.
Practice what you preach.
Management who perform unethically breed employees who perform the same. Senior management and all supervisors should stick to the company code of ethics in all they do to set a good example for subordinates.
Don’t encourage competition.
Employees that constantly compete against each other to get ahead can become sneaky and underhanded to achieve their goals. Instead, reward teamwork, collaboration, dedication and upholding corporate ethics.
Listen to employee feedback.
If there’s a problem, it’s likely your employees will let you know. Maintain an open door policy, confidentiality and zero tolerance of retribution. Encourage employees to report to you or your business ethics officer anything they notice that violates your company’s code of ethics.
Good business ethics are worth your efforts!
An ethical business model helps you establish a positive, supportive corporate culture. This, in turn, helps establish your company as a place where employees want to work. Your recruiting efforts will be much easier if your business has a good reputation.
Looking for new employees in the Atlanta area?
Snelling Georgia Group has you covered. Our experienced recruiters work hard every day to place top talent in best-fit positions. To learn more about how Snelling Georgia Group can help you supplement your staff, contact us today.
