How to build and promote your company culture as you grow internationally

As your business grows, it becomes more and more important for your success to build a strong positive corporate culture. And it will need to be constantly reinforced and updated over time.

A positive company culture will help you in many ways, as long as you promote it effectively, in a language that all your current and future employees understand.

Why company culture matters

According to a survey by Deloitte, 94% of executives and 88% of employees believe a distinct workplace culture is important to business success. But how exactly does a positive company culture help your business?

1. It helps you hire the right people

A positive culture is one of the best ways to attract employees that share your values, mission, and vision. It makes onboarding more efficient: when you have a clearly-defined culture, you are able to easily communicate your values and ways of working to new hires.

2. It helps you retain engaged employees

A positive culture helps your employees find real value in their work, thus encouraging them to invest in their future with your company. It also boosts morale: your employee will be less stressed, feel happier, and enjoy their work more.

3. It improves the work performance of your team

Companies with a strong corporate culture generally show higher productivity. Employees that enjoy going to work every day are more motivated and more likely to perform their best. 

Also, when everyone shares the same culture, it increases group cohesiveness and encourages teamwork, which is especially helpful when you open international offices.

How to build your company culture

A strong company culture is a great asset to your business. And it doesn’t require a huge budget or lots of resources. Here are 4 steps for building your company culture:

Step 1: Define your values

• Ask yourself “Why do we exist?”. It will help you precisely define your mission.
• Think about what you believe in and what your values are. In other words, what’s important to you?
• Think about your vision for the company’s future: what’s going to happen as you grow?

Step 2: Evaluate your current culture

• If you already have a company culture, know that it’s not set in stone. You can change it, even though it’s easier to build a company culture from scratch.
• Ask your team what they like and don’t like about your current culture and their work environment. Use their suggestions to create a company culture that fits their goals, needs, and values.

Practical tip
Create a survey about your company culture and ask your employees to answer it anonymously. It’s a great way for you to know what they think about your current culture. Don’t forget to make it available in all the languages that they speak.

Step 3: Build your company culture

• Using the survey results, build on your current culture, and find out what needs to be changed.
• Think about how you can embody and stay true to your values and visions.
• Think about concrete ways you can create a positive working environment:
  • Organise team meals, birthday celebrations, etc.
  • Let your employees know that their voices are heard and valued using weekly team meetings
  • Show your employees how their work positively impacts your company, your customers and the community
• Create a mission statement and a document explaining your core values. Share this document with your employees. As you grow, it will help you share your company culture across all of your international offices. Make sure you have this document translated and shared with every new hire.

Step 4: Optimize your hiring process

• Use your company culture to build your talent brand. Draft a few sentences about your company culture to include in your job postings.
• Make sure candidates understand your culture and values: Have a list of questions to ask during job interviews to get better data.

How to promote your company culture

As your company grows, it becomes crucial – and harder – to promote your values and have a consistent culture across regions and offices. Here are some actions you can take to promote and improve your company culture.

1. Effectively communicate your mission, vision, and values

• Codify your company culture: create guides and tools to share best practice and put your culture into action in a very practical way. Share these documents in your employees’ preferred languages. The more you grow, the more formal your company values and culture become.
• Provide your employees with training about your company culture. Explain to them how they can live your values.

2. Constantly reinforce your values

• Have “culture champions” who embody and promote your values and missions. Make sure that the managers demonstrate your company culture through their own behaviours.
• Implement programs that regularly reinforce your values, like awards, support during times of need, and handwritten notes of gratitude that highlight your employees’ achievements.
• Provide and ask for regular feedback in your employees’ preferred languages: implement regular reporting to identify and address areas that need improvement.

3. Assess your company culture

• It’s important that you measure your company culture to know if you’re creating the work environment and experience your team wants. Here are some ways to measure your culture effectiveness:
  • Employee surveys, available in the languages that your employee speak
  • Employees referral rates
  • Voluntary turnover rates
  • Employee ratings
  • Review sites

But not everything can be quantified. Take into account what you see happening around you and ask yourself if your employees look happy for example.

Building your company culture is challenging, even more so when your company is growing internationally. It’s important to share and promote your culture to ensure consistency in all the regions you’re operating in. Translation can help you create standardized guides, tools, and survey to share with your employees, in a language that they understand.does