New study reveals key findings for high-performance company culture

The wordculturehas become a buzzword and is arguably one of the hot topics among corporate leaders today. Corporate culture, or some may say work culture, is important to bring the best out of employees and increase employee engagement, retaining employees at the same time.

If your organisation is facing difficulties in achieving cultural goals, it helps to look at what other companies do and identify what they did right, particularly those high-performance companies. And that's exactly what one company did.

CultureIQ, a company which creates software that helps companies improve their culture, recently collaborated with Entrepreneur, a media company, to release key data insights on elements of culture that are most important to organisations and their focus area in creating high-performing cultures. The study was conducted on 28,371 employees at 340 companies of different sizes, industries, products, and services to evaluate their company culture.

It analysed ways that age, gender, employee tenure, hourly pay and other factors influence culture in an organisation. Below are some of the key findings:

So what are some of the best practices you can pick up from these companies with strong corporate cultures?

1. Prioritise your employees

Your employees are your greatest asset. Without them, there will be no corporate culture. Create a strong foundation with them by providing them with encouragement, stimulus and involve them in every way to ensure that they are always an integral part of your company mission.

2. Define company mission

Don't just state your company mission on paper or on your company website. Define a purpose and a clear framework so that you and your employees can constantly be mission-driven all the time.

3. Lead from the top

Everything starts from the top. Get your leaders to demonstrate good behaviour and champion the company mission to the entire organisation. Leaders can start by listening to their employees and take action based on what they hear.

4. Hire thoughtfully

Hire people who share the same values. Consider incorporating questions that can reveal the values each candidate possess. Bear in mind that technical skills can be taught but values are usually harder to bend.

5. Be clear and purposeful

You have to be transparent and provide total clarity. When you are transparent, employees will learn to trust you and provide a level of commitment in return.

6. Listen

Remember that everyone has value. Even if you do not share the same viewpoint as your employees, if you listen to them and show you value their opinions, you can develop a stronger work relationship with them.

A strong corporate culture can become an added competitive advantage to your organisation. Competing in the same industry, you are bound to face a competitor that offers similar product and services, and have more or less the same number of employees. But what differentiates you from your competitors is your corporate culture. It is the key element to a higher company performance, a stimulator to a happier workforce and a driver to your company brand. Don't let this buzzword slip past you and lose its meaning due to the overwhelming discussions surrounding it and start taking action to gain an upper hand now.