5 Ways To Build A Thriving, People-First Company Culture

It’s no surprise companies look up to Zappos for inspiration. Zappos has disrupted the traditional way of running a business and succeeded. Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, knew in order to make customers happy, he had to first make his employees happy. Like most companies, Hsieh struggled with the culture in his first company. In fact, he hated it, so much so that he lost all motivation to show up. Through this experience, Hsieh learned culture is more of a priority than the profit of a company. With Zappos, he promised himself that he would be more intentional about the culture he created and the people in which he worked. Ultimately, a successful company hinges on the people you hire and how you onboard them, but that’s not all.

Here are five ways to build a thriving, people-first company culture.

Focus On Building Relationships

A company’s most valuable resource is its people. These are the subject matter experts that know the equipment, the processes and have ideas on how to innovate. The biggest mistake companies make is overlooking their resources aka their people, and instead focusing on the results.

There are a wealth of benefits when leaders focus on building strong relationships with their employees such as increased loyalty, trust, commitment, respect, productivity, innovation and performance. Employees want to feel cared about. When employees have strong relationships with their managers they’re more likely to exhibit prosocial behavior like being more collaborative.

What made Hsieh stand out is he focused on delivering the best customer service and creating a culture that was unparalleled to others. Taking the time to get to know your team members on both a personal and professional level gives managers the opportunity to better understand what’s going on in their personal life that’s impacting their professional performance. Not only that, but Hsieh has made it a point to build relationships with their vendors as well. This has not only strengthened their relationships but the overall brand because vendors want to go above and beyond for the clients who treat them well.

Give Employees Space To Create And Learn From Mistakes

The most innovative companies are ones that encourage their employees to share opinions and ideas as well as take risks that could potentially flop. For example, 3M took a risk on the Post-It note that was created by accident by an employee. Now, 3M produces more than 50 billion Post-It notes each year and has more than 22,000 patents that are derived from employee side-projects.

Additionally, products such as Gmail and Adsense are a result of Google giving developers a percentage of their time to think of creative opportunities that would help grow Google. Google refers to its program as the 20% program which gives employees 20% of their time to create new projects. LinkedIn, Jooble and Hewlett-Packard, to name a few, have all adopted similar programs. While not every company can afford to give their employees a percentage of time to new projects or process improvement, but they can encourage employees to take risks and think more creatively. Traditionally, companies discouraged their employees from taking risks for fear that it could destroy the company. However, this has held companies back. Employees, especially the new generation of workers want to express their ideas and try new out-of-the-box things.

Zappos encourages their employees to use company resources for outside projects and Hsieh takes pride in his employees being their own mini-entrepreneurs. For this reason, Zappos has transitioned from hierarchy to a Holocracy, a management style that gives employees the flexibility to work with less oversight from managers and more freedom to take on new projects.

Prioritize Leadership Development

According to HR Dive, 45% of managers reported that they have never received formal management training. In fact, research conducted by Jack Zenger found that most managers don’t receive training until they’ve been in a leadership role for almost 10 years. As a result, 60% of new managers underperform in their first two years. Consequently, managers develop poor leadership habits that they’ve picked up from other managers or from just trying to figure it out.

Employers who deny access to leadership development discourage managers from being successful. Being proactive and equipping employees with leadership skills before they step into a management role will undoubtedly help them be successful. Prioritizing leadership development through training, coaching and providing a toolbox of resources will prove to be invaluable to managers as well as their direct reports.

Define Core Values And Turn Them Into Actions

Core values serve as guidelines for any decision made within a company from hiring to firing. The new generation of workers want to work for companies in which they align with their defined core values. However, the biggest mistake most companies make is not living up to their core values. Rather, they have them sprinkled throughout the website and on job descriptions to attract talent they think will resonate with them, but when that talent joins the company they’re quickly disappointed.

Instead of using generic descriptions on the company website and in job descriptions, leaders should be living out the core values in everything they do and every decision they make. Employees should be doing the same. This is why it’s important to define core values that align with the direction of the business rather than implement generic ones that many companies use. Zappos has 10 core values that they live out every day in everything they do. In fact, when an employee violates a core value they can expect to face consequences up to termination.

Be Deliberate About Building Your Culture

The mistake most leaders make is believing culture forms from the people they hire. Therefore, they don’t have a hands-on intentional approach when it comes to creating it. As a result, toxic behaviors run rampant and the culture quickly becomes out of control. It’s not until a scandal breaks or a lawsuit occurs that the company is forced to take action to fix it. By then, it’s already too late as the company’s reputation is tarnished and it loses its appeal for quality candidates to want to apply.

Being deliberate about building your culture from the start means hiring people who will add to the culture. It’s also about addressing toxic behaviors immediately and reinforcing expectations and core values. Zappos’ is a strong example of a company who was deliberate about building their culture. Every employee is excited to make customers love the Zappos brand as much as they do.

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