Over the years, technology has brought about a generation of employees who are not driven by team spirit; thanks to technology, hot desking, home policies and synergy at work has been eroded. This is a worrying trend because a company can easily lose its culture. To change this course, companies should bring about their employees to nurture group work, purpose and sense of belonging. To make this happen, the leader of the company should take the team through the vision, mission and the culture of the company through storytelling, which is easier to understand and remember.
It is not possible to create a company culture on your own; you need a team who can create an atmosphere that any new member who joins the company can assimilate to be a member of the “tribe.” Company culture breeds identity and character; it is what employees are led to believe for them to see their future as a success and to remind them each time why they are with the company. Let us look at how a company culture can be promoted through storytelling.
The structure of the story
A story needs to be authentic to make an impact, it needs to be interactive for people to associate with it, and it needs to be emotional for it to stick. The story of your company should be clear enough such that new employees can easily understand it, just as someone who has been employed by the company for years.
When a new employee walks through the company’s doors, they need to understand that they are in the right place and they should know how much you value them and their individual contribution. It is not good to overlook things like the first day at work and their induction into the firm. The first few days of a new employee should be the time to share the story of your company with them for them to understand what the company values. Clarity is a necessity because it helps to build a great career from the onset.
Mobile working has changed the ballgame, the workspace is being neglected at a high rate, and as a leader, you need to change this trend if you want to have a buzzing company culture. For starters, you need to ensure that your office setting is appealing and inspiring enough for people to enjoy coming to work every day. Create fun activities at the workplace like an “Instagram Thursday” where the company employees share either their work experience at work on Instagram or a fun video that is made by the employees is uploaded on Instagram every Thursday. You need to remember that the office environment comes to life with people, and not furniture.
Encourage individual hobbies and interests in your workplace; the job is just part of our lives. So, if you encourage them to share their hobbies and interest, you will have a highly active workforce in your company. Employees who feel like they are accepted the way they are, and they are inspired to showcase their talents and skills become even more ingrained in being productive that it spurs creativity and productivity at work.
Finally, delight and surprise your customers. You don’t have to inspire your employees with ridiculous gestures, simple touches of recognition go a long way for employees to feel valued. The small things are what will make your employees go home and share what they have experienced with their friends and families. The net result is that your employees will speak highly of your company anywhere they go.
Do away with the blinkers
When you are telling your company story, avoid giving it all in one sitting or event; it is not an effective strategy. You need to break it down into chunks where it is shared with the employees as time goes by. Avoid having one voice to communicate the company culture, share the responsibility or develop creative channels where different aspects of the story are told by dedicated channels. Use both personal channels, anonymous, physical and digital channels.
Using different channels is a way of showing how diverse the company is and it also signifies a great bill of health of your company, because it helps in addressing the small matters that are valuable to your teams.
Although each employee enjoys the same journey, the result is that all the employees have their way of telling the story. This should be something that should be encouraged by the leader of a company. You can encourage sharing of personal understanding of the company culture through cocktail events, charity events, and even lunch session. These events that foster personal development go a long way to impact productivity and the day to day undertakings at work.
It is good to spend time in the story about branding of the company, but it is also important for the company to be entrenched in a one-minded approach. You can broaden the cultural mindset of your company by exploring collective and personal stories that come from the same field. You can have a breakfast meeting, where all company employees eat together as they listen to a business update or an invited speaker at the end of the month. Regardless of the size of the event, your employees can create a stronger bond.
Finally, for a story to be implemented well in your business, you have to be clear about the company values and how the employees can have lasting employment in their company. You can only promise a great career if you provide an exciting working culture that is simple, easy to understand and it inspires. For instance, you can have metrics like: encouraging the clients and the audience to provide positive feedback and contribute to the development of a colleagues career development.
Conclusion
Finally, through shared experiences, frequent recognition, inspiring passion, delight, and surprise, you will encourage a working environment that is full of life; it will also make it easy for new employees to find a company that has built its branding, its identity and a culture that can be tapped into.
Author Bio: Tristan Pelligrino is the co-founder of Motion Video, a national video production company focused on helping businesses reach their audience through video content. He started his career as an IT consultant working for large organizations like PricewaterhouseCoopers, IBM, and Oracle. After an early career in consulting, Tristan branched out to create a leading regional video production company and digital marketing firm, and he is now focused on spearheading the growth of Motion Video.