Building a strong business culture is a priority for every organisation. Ultimately, the right business culture can help attract talent and retain it.
However, no matter how much a business understands the role of business culture on paper, it’s not always easy to create one that will stick. Culture affects everything:
- The values of the business
- How employees behave
- How people should collaborate
Unfortunately, a company may have a great vision for a culture and still fall short in the execution. In theory, things may seem right. But day-to-day experiences can be different. Often, differences are linked to small details that the company may not notice at first, but that, in the long term, can lead to friction and exclusion.
Typically, cultural issues tend to develop through the gaps once people are hired: how they are supported as new members of the team. The problem here is that gaps can be unnoticeable until they’ve already damaged team morale, engagement, and ultimately, business culture.
Here are 7 little things that businesses don’t think of but that can hurt their culture.
#1. A Recruiter Who Gets Your Business
Recruitment plays a much bigger role in business culture than many organisations realise.
This is where working with the right recruiter makes a meaningful difference. A good recruiter should not simply forward applicants who have passed compliance checks or basic vetting. While screening candidates is a necessary part of the process, it is only the starting point. What matters just as much is whether those candidates align with your company’s values, communication style, career expectations, and working culture.
Recruiters who understand your organisation should act as an extension of your business. Because they work closely with you, they are well placed to pre-exclude individuals whose soft skills, professional goals, or certifications do not match what you are looking for.
When recruitment is handled with cultural alignment in mind, it protects the culture you are trying to build with each new hire.
#2. An Inclusive Kitchen
Office kitchens can also be a cultural touchpoint. Having an on-site kitchen is a positive thing, but the available choices can have an impact.
The default options, black tea and coffee, may seem harmless. But, in reality, this also signals that the business supports only specific preferences, and others are not considered. So, this means that staff who don’t drink caffeine or prefer a milk alternative need to bring their own supplies.
What message does this send? To some extent, this shows that the business culture doesn’t acknowledge differences. So, it’s important to work hand-in-hand with employees to provide suitable options without breaking the bank.
#3. Clear Signage
In many workplaces, knowing where things are becomes an unspoken advantage reserved for employees who have been there the longest. New starters are often left to figure things out through trial and error.
This is where working with a professional signage company can make a real difference. Well-designed internal signage helps people move around a workplace independently. This includes clear labelling for meeting rooms, departments, facilities, reception areas, and shared spaces, as well as visible floor maps where appropriate.
Good signage supports onboarding by reducing uncertainty. It also removes unnecessary barriers between teams.
#4. Inclusive Perks
Employee perks are introduced with good intentions, but they can be counterproductive when they are not thought through properly. This happens when your perks only benefit specific employee demographics, as it essentially means that the remaining employees are excluded.
For example, this can be the case when most perks are designed to support parents or employees who live nearby. Employees who don’t fit the categories can feel overlooked, especially when they don’t have any alternative perk.
Over time, the perk imbalance will also affect the business culture, especially as it can show that a business that’s inclusive on paper is, in reality, very exclusive. So, it’s important to design perks with the whole workforce in mind to ensure everyone feels seen and valued.
#5. Avoiding Business Cliques
Strong working relationships are a great asset to any organisation. But when they start to feel like an exclusive club, they can be a real problem.
Business cliques tend to form naturally between colleagues who’ve been working together for a long time and have a lot in common. The line between cliques and friendships is thin, so it’s important to pay attention.
When established groups hang out together all the time, and they communicate in ways that new people can’t easily join in, this instantly excludes newcomers.
Workplace cliquesare bad for collaboration and psychological safety if people feel left out. When staff feel like there’s an “inner circle, they’re less likely to want to stay with a company. A high turnover rate is never good for business culture.
#6. Flexible Hours
How can working hours have an impact on business culture? They do, and more and more in areas where commuting time can be long. Employees who have a long commute leave home earlier and come back later, which leads to fatigue over time. This can affect their interactions with the rest of the team, their work performance, and their overall engagement.
Besides, a lack of flexibility can also create a culture of clock-watching, critcising late arrivals and early departures, for example.
Flexible working hours could truly help establish a business culture of trust and respect, where employees with different circumstances can shine.
#7. A Point of Contact
Having regular 1-on-1s with a manager is crucial to business culture.
These meetings give staff the chance to talk freely about areas where they need some help. Employees who have meaningful conversations with their manager on a regular basis tend to be way more engaged and less likely to jump ship. These chats really help build trust and support business culture.
Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for managers to fall behind on one-to-one meetings, for a variety of reasons, including:
- Too busy
- Too stressed to make time for employees
- They don’t see any reason for it
Over time, issues are much more likely to get pushed under the rug. This can lead to frustration and higher staff turnover.
In conclusion, no matter what you decide to put on paper, your business culture exists also through the everyday choices you make, from how to stock the kitchen to whether or not make time for a one-to-one.
Add Comment