Are you a small business leader and do you find yourself struggling with recruitment? In 2016 58% of small business owners reported trying to hire staff in 2016, but 52% reported that they were unable to recruit, 48% said that it was a result of being unable to find the employees their business needs.

Fundamentally 60% of recruiters believe cultural fit is the most important factor when recruiting. So by ensuring that your company culture correctly engages with your current teams, culture can be the difference between attracting the right employees for your team and being unable to find any. Culture provides the anchor for your organisation.

A business’ culture is, to a certain extent, responsible for creating its brand image and identity, and many organisations are recognisable just by their culture. No two organisations ever have the same work culture, culture is the defining factor between organisations and makes organisations unique. But most importantly, culture is the factor that determines morale, recruitment, productivity and ultimately the bottom line of your business.

Common characteristics of successful workplace cultures include open communication, an apparent organisational mission, selective hiring, work-life flexibility and competitive pay. And not to forget, enjoyment and fun – in the hard-driving world of business it’s incredibly easy to overlook humanity. Really, culture is about choosing whether you want to be a business that benefits just you or if you want to create a business environment that’s good for all the stakeholders. Culture, after all, is everything.

What influences workplace culture?

Culture is the beliefs, philosophies, principles and values that shape an organisation. Culture controls how employees behave with customers and also each other. By committing to continuously putting people and culture first and making your organisation all about people, you’ll find that culture is the very glue that brings people in your organisation together, but get it wrong and it’ll be the repellent that keeps them apart.

Ultimately, culture is all encompassing in the sense that employee attitudes both internal and external are created as a result of the culture you seek to create within your business. Your business culture will encourage dress sense, are you wanting a Casual, Smart Casual or Business dress code, your culture will define the approach that employees take, but regardless of the dress code, culture will contribute to the overall work environment.

A good company culture can benefit everyone

In today’s society, work creeps in at every opportunity, but sometimes your employees aren’t aware of it. But everyone has a life, a world outside of work and reminding them that it’s okay to be themselves and express their dreams just as much as your company’s, your business can be rewarded with big bold ideas. Innovation is key to survival. Through culture, employees can find their opportunities for personal growth, outline and redefine their self-esteem and change how they view themselves. It’s a known fact that when employees feel content and part of a team, they become more productive.

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Let’s consider, when employees succeed and feel appreciated companies see higher retention rates and a higher quality of work. Workplace culture can create effectiveness, through its structure and professionalism, seeping into employees everyday work lives, meaning that your business will only become more efficient and attract the employees of the future.

Overall, the better your culture is, the more time you spend getting it right, the more attractive your organisation will appear to the world outside. Culture isn’t just something inside your business, culture becomes something marketable, and it’s your USP and the hardest thing for a competitor to replicate. Culture drives efficiency and results in the performance your business has been seeking.

So, how do you know if your company has a good culture?

Make the time to understand what your culture is now and outline how you would like it to be in the future, it’s fundamental to identify and properly assess your company’s culture.

Culture, will change and develop over time, it’ll always be a work in progress, but by making your culture just as important as say your next big marketing objective or your next big sales push, you’ll see your company evolve. Workplace culture is too vital to ignore, and it’s your role to continue to shape it as the workplace evolves, it is after all one of your most imperative responsibilities as a business owner.

Do you understand what is going on in your business?  At nxo we challenge the way you think about your business by sharing our knowledge and experience to create real change and a lasting impact, can we enable your business and develop your business understanding?

Only 29% of the UK’s workforce is engaged, this means that 20 million UK workers are not actively engaged with their employers. Placing the UK ninth in the world’s leading economies for employee engagement, through internal marketing you can re-engage your employees and provide the key to enable your business.

Internal marketing’s purpose is to communicate your company’s goals and to understand your employee’s needs, through aligning employees with your company objectives, your team are more likely to deliver the quality service you’ve designed. By understanding employee’s needs and wants, communication can be tailored to enhance job satisfaction and performance. Effective internal marketing means that barriers to organisational change and resistance can be overcome to realign and motivate employees to create customer orientated employees. Most importantly, internal marketing allows your employees to develop a strong emotional connection to your company brand and the products and/or services that your business sells.

But how do you effectively communicate and market internally?

Often businesses invest heavily into consumer-based marketing, creating a mismatch between the internal and external marketing, but by applying the same principles to internal marketing employees can deliver the experience that’s consistent with the company’s expectations. In a nutshell, internal marketing comes down to communication and communicating, through regular small simple messages employees can digest the information presented to them, after all, nobody really wants to read a 50-page internal marketing document. Keep communications short, sweet, and make it accessible to each and every employee to get your message across. Begin with the objective(s), the mission, the positioning statement, the vision and company values.

Setting your Objectives

So the first step becomes identifying clear goals; from brand awareness to improving customer service, a clear understandable goal can make or break an internal marketing campaign. From there, educate your employees on the company vision, mission and values to form the foundations, this can provide insight into what your employees expect and the expectations placed on them. Whether it’s training workshops, hiring new staff, reorganising departments.

Through creating a positive story within your company, employees can be persuaded to engage with your company’s strategy, this positivism can help to bring alive for employees and inform the way they approach their jobs. By branding internally, explaining the company goal and your message, you’ll be able to weave the brand into the very fabric of your company and in the future preserve the culture of your business for future generations.

By answering key questions about your employees:

What do they feel and think of the company?

What do we want them to feel and think?

What would convince them to feel and think like this?

And most importantly, why should they believe you

And what’s the key to all of this? Research; research and understand your target market (your employees), get to know them as the individuals behind their company roles and deliver a campaign that engages with them, but don’t forget to gather feedback. Effective internal communication places your company’s soul into an employee’s everyday life and reinforces why they come to work. By tailoring internal marketing communication, your on-brand behaviour can become second nature to your employees. And without internal communication? How will your employees care or contribute positively to your company? Internal marketing, after all, is just as important as external.

Attend our marketing planning workshop to find out more