INNERGISE!

Maintaining a company culture when the company is going through a period of growth can be challenging. As organisations grow, the key is to implement strategies that not only maximise the growth opportunities available but to do so whilst maintaining the core values and culture that the business was originally founded upon.

During periods of growth, the focus can shift to everything from sourcing new premises to hiring new staff and this can create the issue of spreading the culture thin or creating different cultures across multiple locations.

Maintaining your established culture across multi sites can be problematic, so here are a few ideas on how you can avoid a divided culture appearing in your company:

Have a Founder Present in Any New Site

The culture that exists within your business stems from the values that the founders share. Having a founder present, if only for the initial period, who lives and breathes these values will ensure that the new employees will understand the culture and represent your brand and business in the same way.

Don’t Make Assumptions

As your business grows further don’t make the mistake of assuming your culture will spread with it. The process of hiring somebody into your business will evolve and other employees will be included in this process, when others start to get involved is when you are at risk of losing the culture – ensure your key employees are just as comfortable with your culture as you are.

Communication

Communication is key to any change, employee engagement, induction, training etc. that occurs within your business. Communicating about your culture will let your employees know you are committed to the values and culture that exist within the business. 

Identify Company Ambassadors

Identify those individuals who understand and represent your culture (aka “culture ambassadors”) – incorporating these individuals into any induction process will give new employees an understanding of what working in and for your company is all about.

Live Your Culture

How you induct someone into your organisation is a reflection of your company and the culture – if you say you are one thing but your actions are the opposite no one will truly grasp your culture. For example, if part of your culture centres around teamwork and learning from each other, yet in the induction process new hires are left in a room on their own to read through your induction pack, this clearly gives the wrong impression of your business.

Have you designed all the activities that new hires will be doing during their induction process with your values and culture in mind?

Meet Regularly

Geographical restrictions can make it tough for employees across all offices to meet regularly, so where possible try to alternate meetings across the different offices. Arrange Skype meetings when traveling isn’t an option – alternate who hosts these Skype meetings.

When second and more offices are introduced it is important that employees don’t feel at a disadvantage for being located somewhere else – this can happen when meetings are always arranged in a particular office.

Have the Right Systems and Technology in Place

With more office locations there are systems and technology that can assist in office communication which helps maintain your company culture. As mentioned Skye is a great way to do this – having the visual addition can encourage the team attitude rather than just a voice on the end of a line.

Our Talent Hubs are web based systems that provide a central library of information an employee would need, training centre to host induction and additional training programmes, internal forum to increase communication. Hosting a system like this would enable you to deliver consistent induction programmes across all offices and further encourage multi-site communication.

For further information on our Talent Hubs and how you can improve your culture and induction process contact us.