Keeping Up the Company Culture

What Is Company Culture?

If you asked 10 individuals their thoughts on company culture, you would most likely get 10 distinct answers. With 2020, this has become a more complex topic as our organizations have become less centered around cultural “hubs” we once had in place. How have companies with thriving company cultures been able to retain this? In today’s blog, I will describe what has worked for our team and look forward to engaging with others!

In the multifamily property management business, our team is fortunate to retain much of the close culture we had pre-covid. I attribute some of this to our comfortability in working remotely.  Having dispersed employees throughout 15 states, our team’s ability to communicate effectively, and use software platforms already in place, strengthen our foundation for remote operations.

Everyone: But Aaron, that’s all pretty standard… any company that hoped to have any success during these times would have had to have a few of those areas in place. What has been the true difference?

Me: It has all been in the intangibles. Our positive company culture didn’t just happen by accident, but rather it was created and nurtured with purpose!

Deliver What You Promise

Delivering what you promise is one of our core values as an organization and, for me, top of the list. All aspects of business decision-making and relationships encompass the trust and accountability we have toward one another. Over the past year, so many people have seen the collapse of their support (financially, physically, emotionally) or have been spread so thin by the balancing act of work from home (WFH) that this one message goes a long way! The promise we made to our employees and the undergirding of our culture was to support them. With this feeling, our employees have thrived in trying times, and we are so thankful for their continued efforts.

Listen

Listen to your employees, to your clients, to your stakeholders. These collective groups make up the culture of any business. If you genuinely listen to those central to your organization’s needs, you can make swift, responsible, and powerful decisions. We have gained far more insight by hearing our team members, which allowed us to continue the high level of service our customers expect and the “pre-covid” culture we set in place.

Practice Empathy

We have seen empathy displayed between our employees across all areas of our business, and, as a company, we are thankful to have been recipients of it. Families juggling schooling for their kids, spousal job changes, connectivity ability when working remotely, challenges of many different sizes and shapes seemed to show up this past year. Our understanding culture coupled with the standard of accountability enabled our team to keep a foothold with each other and continue to deliver for our clients.

Foster Resilience

We have weathered some storms together, and as a 65+ year-old company will most certainly have experienced a crisis, whether internal or external to the organization. What we have that most don’t is our people who were there when the crisis hit and when we emerged post-crisis. Adaptability is a greatly overlooked quality in the hiring process. It can be one of the defining differences between a resilient workforce that pulls together when times get challenging or fall apart. Uncertainty is the theme of the last year, yet the morale internally at Hayes Gibson has remained up.

4 Important Things You Get When You Focus on Company Culture on Purpose

  1. Engaged employees who speak and act in the best interest of the organization.
  2. A supportive and positive workplace atmosphere directly contributes to the overall well-being of everyone in the organization.
  3. Increased trust in leadership to guide them through the tough stuff with confidence.
  4. Employees who are more connected to their work and co-workers are willing to work harder to get the TEAM over the obstacles facing them toward a common goal.

It’s a deliberate combination of designing, nurturing, and protecting the culture you want. Through communicating the vision, leadership and showing appreciation, you enable everyone to see their part in the greater organization as necessary to shared successes. It is the humans at the center of your workplace in which the quality of their lives directly impacts their contributions to the workplace environment or company culture. Shouldn’t you be inspired to put your people and culture first? We did!

What has your team done to retain a thriving culture? Are you interested in learning more about our team and how we worked hard in Keeping the Company Culture through a less than ideal year? Reach out to us!