Define company culture to attract talent and build stronger teams

Company culture makes the office tick. It’s the attitude toward personal development, work-life balance or initiating big ideas – and your employees make it happen. And, as younger, values-driven generations dominate the workforce, so do their expectations of employers.

Developing a modern, stable and productive work environment full of team players and talented workers requires understanding your company’s culture and expressing it. Define what’s important to the overall organization, identify how that effects your hiring process and get started on an easier, more efficient path to finding your perfect employees.

Examine your current practices
Does the team work from home on Fridays, or does the company offer creative benefits like student loan repayment? Specific behaviors or policies that seem to be “just the way we do it” can be good indicators of what’s important in your office. Formal initiatives to actively hire more veterans or a strategic approach to building a diverse team can also point you in the right direction. Look for opportunities to describe the office environment as inclusive, balanced or empathetic (or words like those).

What are employees saying?
If your social media presence is just posting updates about events or tech releases, instead of providing valuable content, you’re missing out on essential ways to build your employer brand and share your company culture. Not only are these platforms an easy way to express yourself, they provide great opportunities for feedback. Pay attention to whether current – or even previous – employees engage with your social media channels. Encourage their participation in constructive ways and empower them to share what it’s like to work on the team. Use social media to check-in or shape the conversation about your employer brand and ultimately ensure that is accurately reflects your company culture.

Audit your hiring process
Comb through the company application process to find wording, behaviors or steps that don’t reflect your culture, are outdated or might be opportunities to share your values. Maybe the actual application is too long and clunky, or job descriptions are full of jargon and don’t paint a picture of what it’s like to work there. Do you have an employee referral program or know how potential new hires interact with current employees? Background check filters might be preventing great hires, or the website isn’t highlighting the great diversity of people and experiences at your company. Consider how an applicant might consume every touchpoint you offer, then improve those experiences so they better portray your values.