Corporate culture encompasses values and behaviors that contribute to a unique social and psychological environment of a business. Understanding the intricacies of corporate culture takes years of experience in a work setting. Fortunately I have the pleasure of being able to talk to an established salesman. My father, Carlos Carter, has been working in sales for over 30 years. In that time he has worked as a car salesman, automobile financing officer and a mortgage financing officer. He sold 40 cars in a month which is still a record in Olathe, Kansas. Currently, he is in the top 15 of 70 loan officers in his current position. My father has the years of experience needed to understand the details of corporate culture.
Why is corporate culture important to a company?
That's a good question. In today's society everyone has to be politically correct and a company wants to develop a culture that is suiting and fitting for what the CEO wants. They are trying to set a culture of togetherness, unity, people moving in the right direction.
Companies are finding out that people like each other and are more apt to have more fun when they come into work and they become as a result more productive. They try to set a culture so that it is more enticing to their employees. They want to have a good, happy and motivating culture at work.
So you are saying that employers want to create a good culture to keep people happy at work to get better results.
Right. Keeping people engaged is important. Sometimes people will work in a job longer even though they are not making as much money because the culture is right for them. Corporate culture is important in today's society.
When you see a company that has a good culture what are some of the values that you see?
For example, there are some employers no matter what the holidays may be they might overwork their employees. Some employers allow their employees to take off. Some employers promote more family values and atmosphere instead of everyone just individually working.
Some employers emphasize production over culture. There are a lot of little things that may go into an employee wanting to stay at a particular place. Another example, some employers may allow games at the workplace and have a game room. Culture is very important in today's world versus production of the past.
Back when I was younger everyone wanted to be more productive driven. If you are productive we don't care about how your character is. Now companies are built on character and being a good employee at work. In that way the employee's values are taken into consideration.
Do you think corporate culture will change or always remain the same?
I think it is going to change and evolve with the times as the millennials come up. You know what, I found out today I was talking with a customer who is from California and he told me that he had a child. And I'm like ok that's great and he began to tell me that he has been off for four weeks of work.
So, not only does the wife get off, but also that man got off as well. So that seems very unique to me. So the culture will evolve as the millennials come up. Coming from the older times 70's and 80's I never heard of a man being off for four to five weeks for the birth of a new child. So yes the culture will continue to evolve to meet the employee's needs.
How would you assess company culture?
To assess a company's culture from the outside looking in would be difficult. Outside of just assessing the happiness of employees coming in to work and seeing less turnover. The turnover would not be as rampant. You have to look at a particular industry to determine if a company has a higher turnover rate compared to other companies.
If the turnover rate is high then maybe the culture there may not be as productive or enticing to employees. It's hard to assess a company's culture other than looking at the turnover ratio or maybe looking over the upper management and see what they are emphasizing.
My last question for you about corporate culture is do you think a company should have a stated set of cultural values. Why or Why not?
Well, I think that it is very important in today's society. Like I said, employees are looking for not only the monetary gain, but also the type of culture that may fit their character. So, companies should be upfront about their culture or set of values. So an employee can see what they are singing up for.
Today's culture is more about being inclusive which includes everyone having their voices heard, different ethnicity groups in the office and also different political affiliations. Even though you shouldn't really get into the political arena at work.
But as far as including everybody that's what employees are looking for. So to answer your question, yes, companies should state their culture and goals right up front. So there won't be any type of misunderstanding or misconceptions for any particular employee.
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