How to Maintain Company Culture During Growth

When a start-up faces rapid growth, it can be both an exciting and stressful period. In addition to hiring more staff and navigating logistical challenges, business owners must consider how their company culture can adapt to meet the demands of the new scenario. This guide explains the importance of building and maintaining a strong company culture during growth.

The Importance of Company Culture

Company culture refers to the shared habits, behaviours, and values of a corporate team. A well-defined and successful culture can not only help to boost satisfaction among workers, but it can guarantee retention and productivity. In the broadest terms, this could encapsulate the hierarchies, the social expectations, and even the dress code. In customer-facing businesses, this culture will be reflected in the service provided to clients.

Strong customer service, in turn, is essential to a business's success. This is evident through Paddy Power's popular live casino games, whereby real-life croupiers showcase the importance of engaging with customers in a professional and friendly manner whilst hosting games such as blackjack, poker, and roulette. These charismatic dealers help to boost engagement and keep customers returning. If a business prioritises its company culture, its customers can experience the benefits of dealing with a productive and satisfied workforce.

Build and Identify the Company Culture

Before a business owner can strategise how to maintain its culture, it must first evaluate what its cultural strengths are to begin with. It can be helpful to identify what the company’s mission is, and then formulate a set of values that will guide leaders on how to achieve these goals.

The best workplaces often have values such as, “We wish to support our employees to grow alongside the company,” or even, “We aim to make the office feel like a home away from home.” By outlining these values and sharing them with employees, leaders can then make decisions that strive toward these goals.

Once the values are identified and shared, recruiters can look for new employees who share the same values. The more that employees feel that they have autonomy, opportunities for growth, and harmonious interactions with co-workers, the stronger the culture will be.

Maintaining Company Culture

If a business finds success and has to scale up, maintaining this company culture can be challenging. There may even be times when the core values must be altered in response to broadened missions. One of the best ways to mitigate any problems is to communicate with current staff members about these updated goals.

It is then recommended that business owners ask for feedback and input from the team on how any potential cultural challenges can be addressed. This will allow employees to invest further in the company and take a sense of ownership in its new direction. Additionally, come up with new ways for employees from different departments to interact, whether it's through social outings or team-building activities such as meals or puzzles. These techniques communicate that leaders care about their workforce.

Happy Employees, Happy Business

The first step to maintaining company culture during times of growth is to identify the business's core mission and values. If these are communicated to employees, they can take a sense of ownership in maintaining the culture, and as long as their opinions are heard, will help to navigate the challenges of growth.