Every company has a culture, whether they intend to or not. As an employer, this is why it’s so important to take the reigns and have an active role in developing it; otherwise, you may end up with a culture that doesn’t serve your vision, your employees, your customers, or your brand. 

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Culture is not static; it can respond and evolve according to internal and external demands, just as your strategy should. But while C-suite leaders shape the company's strategy, the culture is dictated by the experience and behavior of all employees. The key is to blend the two to align and work together. If this isn’t prioritized, issues down the line are imminent. After all, as famous management consultant Peter Drucker once said – “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

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A company’s culture is the personality of the organization – made up of its mission, values, habits, atmosphere, and collective consciousness. A company's culture sets the tone of the working environment, and the stronger your company culture, the greater your competitive advantage. Good company culture can provide a lot of value to your business. 

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Here are some of the benefits of strong company culture:

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• Lower employee turnover rates
• Higher productivity rates
• Stronger relationships
• More engaged employees
• Higher employee and customer satisfaction 
• Increased profits

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But what makes a good company culture? For some, what may immediately come to mind are images of recreational areas with ping pong tables or table football or perhaps unlimited coffee and snacks. Sure, toys and free food can be nice – but is it enough?

What aspects of company culture can boost the organization’s competitive advantage? I’ll give you a hint – it requires a lot more than a few leisurely in-office activities.

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Tips for Building a More Robust Company Culture

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Are you interested in strengthening your company culture? Are you curious about digital tools that can help support a robust organizational culture while simultaneously doubling down on digital transformation? Read on to discover what kind of culture potential hires expect and what tools can help you get there.

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What do employees look for in a company culture?

• Shared Values and Behaviors 

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For a sustainable and healthy company culture, management, shareholders, and employees should align on a common vision and shared values. To maintain this, these values should be clearly articulated and honored. Furthermore, it’s vital to hire people who vibe with your vision. The discontent of employees who are disengaged and misaligned with the company’s vision and culture can be infectious.  

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• A Supportive Community

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Many employees, Millenial employees, in particular, crave mentorship and a supportive work environment that allows them to feel valued and connected to their colleagues, the company, and the community. Less than half of Millenial employees believe that business leaders are committed to helping society improve, and for many employees, this plays a significant role in job satisfaction and their sense of purpose. 

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• Autonomy and Flexibility 

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Now more than ever, employees are demanding more flexibility and more workplace autonomy. They want to feel trusted by their employers and granted the independence needed to execute their tasks according to their ideal working habits. According to a Harvard Business Review study, six out of ten respondents reported flexibility as more important than salary or other benefits. 

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• Constant Innovation 

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Employees, especially the creatively inclined, want to work for companies enthusiastic about constantly improving and creating new features, products, or services. Cultures centered around innovation keep employees on their toes and thinking outside the box, which is great for employee engagement and retention. To achieve this, foster a culture of continuous improvement based on best practices.

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• Collaboration and Feedback

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Three out of four employees rate teamwork and collaboration as very important, and companies that promote collaboration and communication at work have been able to cut employee turnover rates in half. People want to work where their ideas and actions can make an impact. Employers need to focus on teamwork, cross-departmental collaboration, and communication models that emphasize 2-way feedback to achieve this. 

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• Leadership that Listens

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A DDI study of 1000 employees found that more than half of employees have left one or more companies because of a manager. The best thing a manager can do to improve their relationship with employees is to listen. But it’s not enough to just listen; you also have to show that you are listening by reflecting it in your actions. Good management leads by example and knows how to motivate employees and keep them engaged; this is instrumental to maintaining positive company culture.

• Cultivation and Growth 

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According to a 2018 Udemy survey entitled “Millenials at Work”, nearly half of millennials polled reported that learning and development (L&D) is the most crucial benefit after salary. Without a clear career path and opportunities to grow and develop, employees are not likely to stay within the company for very long, hurting employee retention rates. To provide employees with frequent opportunities to learn and grow, support continuous learning by implementing a systematic training model. 

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• Rewards and Recognition 

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More than half of employees report looking for a new job due to a lack of recognition at their current job. This is why employee recognition programs are so important, to show employees that their work is valued and vital to the success of the company. Recognition programs help employees feel that their work has a purpose and show that their effort is valued, which increases both employee engagement and productivity. 

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With all this in mind, how do you begin to implement the above elements into the culture of your organization? 

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Digital Tools to Support Your Organization’s Cultural Transformation 

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Luckily, countless digital tools on the market can help give your organization’s culture the overhaul that it needs. With help from the tools below, you can better achieve your cultural goals and align your workforce with your vision. 

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Learning Management System for Cultivation and Growth

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A learning management system (LMS) is software used to administer, document, track, report, automate, and deliver educational courses. An LMS is an extremely useful tool for managing all of your training resources in one place. Use LMS software to design and deliver educational content for your onboarding and training needs. By offering chances to further education internally, employees can continue to sharpen their skills and maintain their value, while employers can increase their chances of retaining employees. 

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Research LMS software to find the right system for your organization. Or, try a solution like Looop: Looop is an online learning platform (LMS) that makes it easy to create and publish learning resources for your workplace or organization. Another useful LMS tool is Knolyx,  a cloud-based training system that allows companies to create and manage online and offline training courses for their employees, partners, and customers.

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Mentorship Platform for Support and Growth

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To provide your employees with the support and mentorship they need to grow within their jobs, invest in a mentorship platform. These platforms are especially helpful for mentoring hybrid and remote teams. Multiple solutions make employee development and mentorship possible remotely. Research mentorship platforms to find one suitable for your organization’s needs. 

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Or, try Ten Thousand Coffees – an enterprise-level mentorship platform with customized and out-of-the-box mentorship programming that allows HR leaders and administrators to easily run corporate mentorship programs. The platform allows administrators to set up and track their mentorship programs to drive virtual networking, career development, and onboarding initiatives, to name a few.

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Online Time Tracking System for Flexibility

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Providing your employees with flexibility in when and where they work has never been easier with employee time monitoring software. Since the arrival of the COVID pandemic, companies have been leveraging time tracker software for employees to better provide their remote and hybrid teams with the flexibility they need and want. 

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For the best solution in staff attendance software, look no further than Insightful. Insightful is workforce analytics & productivity software equipped with an automated time and attendance tracking feature. Automated time tracking helps your team use their time more effectively, efficiently, and productively to elevate organization-wide performance. Insightful’s worker time tracking features enable your employees to work flexibly while unlocking operational efficiency through the power of work data. 

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Engagement Platforms for Communication and Feedback

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Continuous engagement requires consistent communication and regular feedback. According to an Expert Market survey, 97% of workers believe communication impacts their everyday tasks. Good communication tools are essential to helping you mitigate conflict, maintain engagement, fuel innovation, and boost productivity. For example, Jostle is a cloud-based intranet software that connects remote workers with the rest of their organization, whether they're working from home, at a coffee shop, or out in the field. Jostle was specifically designed to help businesses build a positive company culture and boost employee engagement.

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For quick and continuous feedback, try 15Five Continuous Performance Management software. 15Five Continuous Performance Management software is a complete performance management platform that creates effective managers, highly engaged employees, and top-performing organizations. The idea behind the platform is simple - employees take 15 minutes to answer a survey from their managers, and managers need five minutes to review.

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Employee Recognition Program for Reward and Recognition

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Employee recognition programs are essential for keeping your employees feeling valued and their hard work recognized. Many employee engagement platforms also come equipped with features dedicated to employee rewards and recognition. Check out Awardco, designed to help businesses achieve better employee engagement through rewarding recognition. Awardco is built for optimization, customization, automation, and all the other great -ations you need for a solid employee rewards and recognition program.

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Or, try Empuls, an employee engagement platform that empowers HR, people leaders, and managers to build highly engaged and productive teams. Empuls makes it easy to reward and recognize your employees to improve retention and productivity at your organization.

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Productivity Monitoring Software for Employee Autonomy 

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Workplace autonomy provides a range of freedom and control that employees are afforded in how they do their work. A work culture with a high degree of autonomy means that employees are able and encouraged to make their own decisions about how and when to execute their tasks. Granting employees more workplace autonomy is also a show of good faith that employers trust the people they hire to be capable of self-advocacy, and therefore not in need of micromanaging. 

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Luckily, ‍Insightful is not just a time tracker app for employees. Insightful’s work tracking software also provides valuable insights into employee performance and productivity. This allows manager’s to award employees with the flexibility to work when and where they want as well as the autonomy to work how they want. Insightful’s productivity monitoring gives employees the opportunity to work in a more informed way and equips them with actionable work data insights while eliminating the need for micromanagement. 

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Remember, customers will never love a company until the employees love it first.

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