Big Payoff for Investment in Company Culture

Company culture refers to the “personality” of a company. It is made up of a number of factors, including the company’s values and mission, the physical work environment, and the traits, personalities, and engagement levels of the individual employees who work there. Unfortunately, company culture probably gets less attention than it deserves for a couple of reasons.

For one, it’s hard to precisely define a company’s culture. As noted, it’s made up of many factors, some difficult to measure, that combine to create something different than and more complex than any of the component parts. Another reason is that company culture is notoriously difficult to change. Because it’s made up of so many elements and is akin to the personality of the company, it takes a lot of consistent and dedicated effort to push the culture in one direction or another. Finally, it’s difficult to tie company culture to financial performance. How do you calculate the ROI of efforts to shape the company culture when both the investment and its return are difficult to clearly identify?
Despite these challenges, though, experts point to significant benefit from taking steps to consciously monitor and manage company culture.
In an article for the Tulsa World, Karen Armstrong makes an argument for companies to focus more heavily on company culture than many currently do. First, she argues that recruitment is heavily influenced by company culture. She writes that Millennials, in particular, put great emphasis on company culture when evaluating potential employers. (And they can find out a lot from sites like GlassDoor.) Secondly, Armstrong sees a direct connection between company culture and a business’s bottom line. “Your company’s culture is the driver of productivity, and profitability reflects that productivity,” she writes. “Winning cultures engage and motivate employees. Any company can tell its associates what to do, but that’s not engagement. The entire team—from leadership down—needs to understand the ‘why’ behind the ‘what.’”
Company culture isn’t easy to clearly nail down and it’s difficult to influence, let alone overhaul completely. But some observers argue that a company’s culture has significant impacts on its financial success, even if they are difficult to show quantitatively. Consequently, it makes sense to ensure that culture is an area of focus. Corporate personality matters!