4 Ways To Build a Strong Company Culture

Your company identity starts with the people you employ. Sure, you can hire an expensive agency to redo your website, employ a PR team to get you press links and enlist a top photographer to design visual ads. However, it is the people in your organization who answer phones, welcome customers at the door and send external emails that are truly the voice of your brand. Here a few ways to make sure your most important ambassadors are on board:

1. Invest in your team

SoulCycle instructor hopefuls go through a ten-week training program after making it through a competitive audition. The training intensive includes six weeks of lectures, drills and workshops for four hours a day. Next, trainees have to ride in 3-5 regular classes a week and teach at least two community rides. It takes almost three months for a trainee to be approved to teach a regularly scheduled class. The result is a group of inspiring leaders who are trained to lead full body workouts that use company approved exercises while offering on-brand encouragements. By investing so much in training employees prior to putting them face-to-face with customers, SoulCycle is able to guarantee the quality of their instructors and know that every employee will meet the same standards of excellence. Workshops, lunches and activities designed for employee onboarding get new hires up to speed with company values and policies. Most importantly, investing time and energy in new hires makes employees feel like valued members of your team.

2. State your values loud and proud

ZocDoc has a list of 7 values for employees that are sincere cultural practices relayed to employees. These values include "Speak Up," meaning telling your boss or coworkers when you spot a mistake or area of improvement, "Patient's First," dictating that the goal of the company is always to improve the lives of customers, and "Us Before Me," the value of being humble. To make sure employees follow their 7 golden rules, these core values are written on the walls of all locations. In addition, the company selects a weekly winner as "Monster of the Week," and recognizes employees who go above and beyond while keeping these values. Whether it is a one-line mantra or a list of your top employee values, communicate clearly how you identify top employees and what your ideal company culture looks like. It is not too late to start - just make sure you communicate a rebrand of internal values through a combination of email, signs posted on walls and reinforcement at in person events.

3. Celebrate success

Language school Fluent City recognizes the importance of moving beyond a cash reward and acknowledging employees in ways that build unity, camaraderie and team motivation. Staffers are given shout outs at the start of every team meeting for moments that go above and beyond. In between meetings, the company’s real-time messaging service Slack is used as a brag board, with teams recognizing colleagues for their day-to-day accomplishments through silly GIFS. Perks are numerous (casual dress code, unlimited vacation) but the company places emphasis on perks that everyone can enjoy as a team, such as catered lunches to celebrate birthdays and after work drinks to celebrate new team members. By celebrating success and special events with team building activities and visible acknowledgements, you inspire loyal and accountable teams who want to support and build up their coworkers. Employees work harder and more productively knowing that their peers are watching and that they will be acknowledged for their achievements.

4. Be transparent

When Amazon acquired Zappos, CEO Tony Hsieh posted a public letter to all employees letting them exactly how the merger happened and what changes to expect. This letter immediately answered questions for employees about job security, growth opportunities and the direction the company was heading. In addition, it took a moment to thank employees for helping Zappos to become successful. By being transparent about new products or initiatives the company is expecting, you prevent employees from feeling jolted and gradually ease in organizational changes. You help employees feel heard and validated by addressing concerns directly. You can even take transparency a step further, allowing roundtables with CEOs or one-on-one opportunities for employees to schedule time with managers and ask questions.

Mandy Menaker is Marketing Director of Fluent City, an awesome hub for foreign language classes and cultural events. Fluent City recently launched their own blog, blog.fluentcity.com, which you can check out for travel inspiration, language learning tips and more. Tweet at Mandy - @mandymenaker