Internal company culture is incredibly important to your brand strategy. However, many employers fail to recognise this, focusing solely on numbers. While profit margins are important, they shouldn’t lead you to forget about the heart of your business – its people.
Promoting a positive internal culture through your company values can give you a big advantage over your competitors and increase your brand value.
Why are company values important?
Company values form the key belief system at the heart of your organisation. They are a shared set of values that everyone in your company should follow and believe in. These could include things like curiosity, empathy or creativity.
Without a set of aligned beliefs, your business may appear disjointed to your customers, because they might have different experiences at different levels and in various sectors of your organisation. This happens because your employees aren’t aligned either in their beliefs or the way they portray your business to outsiders and each other. The brand values you’re trying to promote get lost in translation, harming your company’s brand perception.
What is internal company culture?
Internal culture is a key part of brand culture. It is how your company values are reflected throughout your organisation and how employees perceive your workplace. For example, a company with a reputation for bullying its employees will be seen as a bad workplace. Top talent won’t want to work there and you may have a high staff turnover. This will lead to your competitors luring away your best employees and could damage your reputation in the market.
It’s important to have an internal culture that mirrors your company values in order to strengthen your brand. Otherwise, potential employees and customers can become confused. “Do they stand for diversity or inquisitiveness?” If your values are unclear, your brand culture will suffer as a result.
An example of well-aligned company values that mirror workplace culture is Google, who are known for their creativity. This is carried through to their physical workspaces, which include nap rooms and a slide, to promote creative thinking.
A culture of stress can harm your business
Not only does your internal culture need to match your company values, but it must also promote a positive working environment for your employees. Otherwise, your brand culture will suffer.
Pushing your employees to their limits with impossible targets and pressure to work long hours causes stress and harms employee engagement, according to the Harvard Business Review. Almost 80% of doctor visits are due to either stress or illnesses caused by underlying stress. By focusing on improving your internal culture, you could dramatically reduce the time employees take off work for stress and the amount of sick pay awarded. You’ll not only have your staff in the office more, but you’ll also increase productivity and employee engagement.
Positive workplace culture can improve productivity, and clear, strong company values are instrumental in building this culture. Creating an environment that employees want to work in, where they feel less stressed and more productive, will lead to them aligning with the strong company values. This in turn will help promote your brand values. After all, when employee engagement is high, your staff are much more likely to spread positive messages about your brand, and to be enthusiastic about sharing them with their contacts and potential customers. It’s easy for a client to tell when a salesperson is genuinely passionate about the company they work for and believes in their brand values.
Do you have a positive internal culture, or do you need support in creating this and aligning it with your company values?
At Jérrard Wayne, we understand that creating a strong brand is key to building a successful company. Contact us to find out how we can support your branding goals.
