How Company Culture Impacts Your Bottom Line

How Company Culture Impacts Your Bottom Line

A positive company culture is something that not only brings the community of employees together as a group but has a measurable impact on the organization's revenue and profits. A company’s culture is a unique identifier (like a fingerprint) in that it may be like others, but is uniquely distinct to your business, and the people who work there and nurture the working environment. Most other things like products, strategies, marketing, etc. can be replicated elsewhere, but the culture, or personality of an organization is truly unique to that workplace. A strong organizational culture can clearly set a business apart from its competitors in the mind of its stakeholders and customers.

Your corporate culture is the DNA that provides guidelines, boundaries, and expectations for your team, and is arguably the most powerful resource you have to attract, recruit, hire and retain a high level of talent to your business. Simply put — the best people want to work with the best companies and having the best people in your ranks is vital to ongoing business success.

Talented professionals want to work within the halls of the best organizations, because it aligns with their own expectations of excellence. These talented people, partners and clients see your values and culture as a strong differentiator of how you do business, rather than solely on your products or services alone. 

In sales, it is a known datum that customers will buy based on trust before price. In other words, if they don't trust you then it doesn't matter how good the price is — they won't make a purchase. But if they do trust you, you can charge them almost anything (within reason) because you've already earned their trust as a loyal customer. 

Why is this relevant? From the outside, a company seen to have a poor organizational culture will be far less likely as a trusted source of business. On the other hand, if this company is seen to be authentic, have strong values and a real level of care for its customers, its employees and its products and services — then they have built the foundation of trust in their customers that will be very difficult to shake. 

Ways Company Culture Impacts the Bottom Line

Team Building

A good corporate culture attracts and empowers employees to operate with the goals and values of the team. They are passionate about open communication, increasing productivity and embracing innovative ideas and new business. Common ground could be said to be one of the major building blocks of any relationship — whether friendly, romantic or in business. A group of individuals in a company who all ascribe to the same values, goals, purposes, and intentions will naturally pull together as a team with a common vision for the future of the endeavor. 

Employee Retention

Building and nurturing a work environment where employees enjoy their time at work, have fun on the job, and look forward to showing up each day will obviously result in a loyalty and desire to stay there over a longer timeline. An employer who cares about their fellow professionals will check in often and seek out ways of improving their experience. When you as an executive ask questions, listen to the answers, and take steps to implement improvements to their daily work lives — your employees will know they are valued and important members of your organization. 

Efficiency and Productivity

Conventional wisdom used to be that a high-pressure environment was the way to push employees toward higher levels of productivity — to be better, push harder, work faster, and hustle til you drop. But the truth is that the cost of disengagement alone should be enough of a deterrent to businesses. A culture of fear and high-pressure "whippings" will only ever result in employee resentment and disengagement. Employee turnover is costly, as is the loss of productivity in employees who are no longer engaged in their work. 

Employees who are part of a work community and know their coworkers well, can communicate effectively with them and are much more likely to work in a collaborative manner. And a work environment that engenders a sense of trust, loyalty, kindness, and compassion is one where workers are far more likely to feel at ease and willing to go the extra mile in terms of their own productivity. 

Profits

Bottom line: your business is here to make money, and your employees are your most important asset. The link between company culture and productive employees is undeniable. Gallup determined that actively disengaged workers cost U.S. businesses about $300 billion dollars a year. Unhappy workers will miss almost four more days of work per year than satisfied employees. 

On the other hand, companies with engaged employees consistently outperform their competition by almost 20 percent! Invest in your employees' happiness, and they will invest their energy and passion into your business — and the profits will speak for themselves.