More than likely, the past couple of years have brought about a number of challenges for your business. But the tough part isn’t over yet.

If you want to grow your business, you need to take a closer look at how your employees really feel. Now’s a great time to put that to the test and to see what your organization is really made of. 

Whenever it comes time to examine what truly matters at work, you can’t skip over company culture. Without a strong culture, you may continue to struggle post-pandemic. Let’s take a closer look at why company culture matters so much and what you can do to improve yours.

Why Should You Care About Company Culture?

As a business owner, it’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day routine. Your top priority might be to deliver the highest quality products or services you can. But in order to accomplish that goal, you need to have a strong cultural foundation.

Workplace culture refers to the values, behaviors, and attitudes within your company. Your culture will influence just about everything in your business, from coworker communications and employee engagement to customer service and product innovation. 

As a result, it’s essential that you care about your company’s culture. If you fail to address issues that exist or simply allow nature to take its course, you could end up fostering a toxic work environment that leads to high turnover, low productivity, and loss of revenue.

Evidence shows that focusing on company culture will pay off (literally!). Having an awesome company culture can help you attract the best candidates and clients, keep employees around for much longer, and outpace the competition due to impeccable performance.

Once you start making cultural improvements, the sky’s the limit for your business. But “culture” doesn’t equate to office happy hours or pizza parties. Perks like these are nice, but they aren’t enough to boost employee morale and satisfaction in the long term. 

Instead, you need to establish your values as an organization and put those values into action. In addition to compensating employees fairly and providing for their basic needs (and beyond), here are just three tips that can make a huge difference in your cultural development by 2022.  

Invest in Professional Development

Current and former employees want to know they matter. They need to know they make a difference in how your organization is run and that you value them. Otherwise, they’ll probably start making plans to move on to the next job opening.

There are many different ways to communicate the value of your employees. But investing in their professional development is a win-win situation. Not only will they acquire the skills they need to get to the next level, but you’ll likely increase their company loyalty and engagement at work. 

Showing you believe in their abilities can go a long way. You’ll benefit from an even more skilled workforce and will likely have the chance to promote internally, which can save you time and money while improving morale and satisfaction.  

Establish Meeting Protocols

If you’ve ever caught yourself thinking, “this meeting could have been an email,” your business may need to establish meeting protocols.

Discipline is part of any strong company culture. That includes staying disciplined when it comes to company meetings. 

Your meetings should include the people closest to the information (rather than including everyone on a team or in the whole organization by default) and follow an agenda that includes an objective, an itinerary, and action items for the next steps. 

You should also establish policies to ensure meetings don’t go over their allotted time slots and to ensure that communication best practices (like active listening or a “yes, and” structure for brainstorms) are followed. 

This may seem like a small change, but it can ensure everyone’s voices are heard and that meetings are truly productive. When you show you value your employees’ time and energy, that can go a long way in boosting your culture.

Embrace Remote Work Options

During the pandemic, business owners and employees alike found that remote work was a viable possibility. While many workers were eager to work from home even before 2020, COVID-19 accelerated this trend – and many workers have no plans to return to the office full-time.

In fact, Bloomberg found that almost 40% of employees surveyed would consider quitting their jobs if they were forced to give up remote work arrangements.

If you want to keep your employees around (or attract new ones!) and your business is conducive to remote work, it would be wise to continue offering work-from-home positions. Not only can this provide more flexibility and balance for employees, but it could ultimately save you money while boosting productivity. 

Don’t Wait to Improve Company Culture

Those in the workforce have more options than ever – and they’re no longer willing to settle for less than they deserve. By taking these steps to improve your culture by 2022, you can establish yourself as a leader in your industry and stand out for the right reasons.