In our blog and podcast From: Paint To: Purpose, we have spent considerable time talking about how one can build a thriving company culture through hiring practices, better accountability, and a series of other unique tactics. However, something that we haven’t done yet is post a dedicated article exploring the less talked about benefits a strong company culture can bestow.

Many businesses today still overlook the importance of a company’s culture and the integral part it plays in the everyday success and long-term health of a company. By briefly laying out some benefits that come from improving a company’s culture, we hope to inspire others to take this aspect of company leadership and management seriously.

Want more expertise on this topic? Watch or listen to the FCP podcast How Culture Fuels Growth, With Jon Barsness

Benefits of Having a Strong Company Culture

There are clear benefits to having a robust and unified culture underlying your business’s operations. Most people understand that your employee’s output will rise when you create a culture that values hard work and excellence. However, this just scratches the surface of how a better culture benefits your company. The following are some of the less understood benefits.

A Strong Culture Attracts and Retains Talent

As humans, we have an inherent need to belong and to be a part of something larger. We also like to feel like we have the support of a team and the backing for making essential decisions with confidence. When you can create an environment where employees feel they have a more significant personal investment other than a simple paycheck, you expect them to stick around longer and to put more into their time at work.

Strong Brand Values Permeate Every Interaction

Your culture contributes to your company’s base values, its overall identity, and how the wider public perceives it. These values also set standards that employees can begin to identify with and conform to. As a simple example, if you emphasize a corporate culture of setting goals, benchmarking progress, and finally meeting them, you can expect your workers to be more likely to develop and meet goals themselves. This cultural relationship does not only affect employees; it also changes how your company interacts with customers and other members of your industry.

 Keep your company’s values coherent, clear, and direct.

At FCP Services, we are a living example of this process in action. Our founder Charles Campion decided it was essential to do business a certain way, with integrity, honesty, and a people-first attitude. While he never expressed these traits in terms of company values, it affected who he hired and how he ran our company. This unspoken attitude affected how we conducted ourselves with employees, clients, and sub-contractors; it just became how one did business.

These founding values could be felt in how customers reacted to us and the people we attracted. As the brand grew, this unspoken attitude eventually evolved into what we now understand as the company culture. In the end, this was an essential secret to how we became so successful.

Thirty years later, we are now a company that helps other organizations replicate these steps and create an internal culture of excellence of their own.

Trends and Market Competition

Culture is something that both employees and consumers are becoming more concerned with. For example, the video games industry has become infamous for its “crunch” scheduling, and employees and buyers have come out against brands for these practices. Simultaneously, companies known to have solid and people-forward cultures are generally seeing a boost in the market.

For example, many companies are now adopting the brand values of environmental consciousness and enacting changes through endeavors such as sustainable packaging. These steps not only provide for a brand that employees will appreciate working for but also helps a company’s bottom line. In a survey, over half of the people said they would pay more for sustainable products. This is just one example of how a core value can translate into multi-faceted benefits.

The younger millennial generation also weighs these social values more heavily when choosing work and buying products. Millennials are driving the workplace changes of the near future and without properly adhering to their expectations, you may find yourself at the wrong end of a skills shortage. Generally speaking, the younger generation expects better pay, more socially and environmentally conscious actions, and more workplace flexibility. Without a strong culture that syncs up with these wants, you may have a harder time attracting the right levels of talent.

Looking to Evolve Your Company Culture?

This was really only a small sample of how your organizational culture is important for your business’s long-term health and viability. Make sure you stop and think about why your company’s culture. How would you describe it? Why is it the way it is? Does something need to change? Do you often see your leaders failing to meet your ideal cultural values? How about employees?

There is no single answer to what the “best” company culture looks like. The optimal culture will change between industries and markets,  but with the right help and guidance, it is possible to build a consistent and strong set of values that will help your company stay competitive for the foreseeable future.