You hear the word culture a lot these days - especially when you’re looking at job adverts. Culture this, our culture that - but we’ve found its one thing to talk the talk about company culture, and another to completely walk it.

Research proves that dissatisfied people are less creative and less productive, and also underperform at problem solving.

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With that in mind, here are 3 practices we recommend businesses stay on top of in order to build or maintain a happy and healthy culture in their business:

1) Honest and Clear Communication

We can think of few bigger threats to company culture than poor communication. Not only will a lack of communication be perceived as a lack of transparency or cause delays and tension, it can also fail to engage teams in broader conversations about the brand.

You can’t ‘make’ people care, so its important people feel valued so they truly believe their input matters to the overall direction of the business. Language from the top goes a long way to achieving that, and sometimes it might be as simple as wording tasks in a manner that everyone understands.

No two people think in the same way, so be willing to say the obvious - you want diversity in your teams but consistency in your language.

2) Live Your Values

The companies that have core values but don’t focus on them often find themselves struggling both financially and culturally.

When we’re looking to bring in new talent, we can’t lie - we pay A LOT of attention to someone’s personality, character, and values. They might be an absolutely killer candidate on paper - but if they aren’t fun or align with our moral expectations, it probably isn’t going to work out right? You want company culture, NOT a company vulture.

It’s important to set this precedent within your firm - even the most talented individual who makes it hard for your team to work as a unit with isn’t worth the trouble. Individuals that way inclined can disrupt other people’s work, or even disintegrate entire teams, so we really recommend looking for people with the correct mindset that suits your future team.

For team members that ARE living your company’s core values - give them a shoutout! By celebrating and rewarding people for behaviour and attitudes that embody your core values, you send a powerful message that performance is noticed and appreciated. 

If you have time, get one of your team who’s behaved in such a way to get in front of a camera. Create a 30 second video clip for Instagram about what your values mean to them - and how they lived it. This brings your company culture to life, and again sets an example to others.

3) Align Your Goals

We grow together - it’s as simple as that. We look for people who share similar professional goals as us, and give them a platform to achieve.

In order for goals to be meaningful they need to relate to daily experiences and actually be attainable. For a company’s culture to thrive, Be Interactive recommends setting clear and achievable ones together - followed by ordering in some pizza!

Data from SurveyMonkey shows that individuals who talk about their goals and successes with their manager at least every six months are almost three times more likely than others to feel engaged and motivated in their job.

A long time ago we swore Be Interactive would NOT become one of those businesses who uses the term ‘culture’ loosely to attract top talent. We want to LIVE our core values and want our culture to be visible to someone who’s interacted with our firm for 5 years or 5 minutes.

That should be your end goal.

END.

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Source: https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/how-to-build-a-healthy-work-culture/