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Building a Corporate Culture to Improve Your Business

By: Benefits by Design | Thursday January 11, 2018

Updated : Tuesday December 15, 2020

Corporate culture is is a big topic these days. As Canadians and their workplaces shift and evolve, a company’s culture must adapt as well.

Businesses who do corporate culture well reap the benefits — increased employee engagement, profits, job satisfaction, retention and acquisition of top talent, and more — while those with a poor culture don’t, and may not even realize what they’re missing out on.

Here are a few ideas, based on our own successes with corporate culture, to build the kind of workplace people will be proud to work at.

#1. Promote Professional Development

Promoting (and even better, providing dollars for) employees’ professional development is a great start. It’s a win-win, as it works to build a culture of learning and continuous growth, while improving your own business!

At Benefits by Design (BBD) Inc., we provide each employee with $1,000 to use for their own professional development, whether that be for courses or certifications, conferences, or even business books!

#2. Make Having Fun at Work a Good Thing

Having fun at work doesn’t have to be a bad thing. In fact, promoting an environment of fun can increase creativity among employees, ultimately leading to a better workplace.

#3. Allow Your Corporate Culture to Build Itself

Building a corporate culture is important, and as we’re showcasing here, there are steps you can take to get there, but you ultimately want to let the culture build itself.

Corporate culture, after all, comes from employees, and ramming it down their throats with constant ‘fun’ things is a sure-fire way to lose their interest. Be patient — workplace cultures aren’t built overnight. They are carefully cultivated.

#4. Offer Paid Volunteer Time

Encouraging employees to volunteer through paid time off is another great to nudge your corporate culture in the right direction. There are many benefits to the act of volunteering itself!

#5. Engage with Your Community

Engaging with your community through placement and volunteer programs puts you on the map, and encourages employees to talk about your workplace!

#6. Encourage Behaviours You Want to See

Whether that be volunteerism, engaging with the community, or continuous learning through professional development, you need to let employees know what you’d like to see.

Encourage them to do the behaviours you want to see more of through incentives, or by ensuring they’re more readily able to engage in those activities through paid time off and professional development dollars.

Your corporate culture shapes everything — just like it did us!

Learn about BBD's culture