Culture. It’s a nebulous topic and can be hard to pin down, but having a clear set of values can lead to focused and loyal staff. That’s why it’s time you checked your business is in tune. 

In the beginning, culture came from the top. As the business grew, the culture evolved, right? So would your key stakeholders – your people, your clients, your suppliers – all identify the same cultural signifiers if you asked them? Some may see culture as wishy-washy, but inconsistencies and poor communication lead to low morale, absenteeism and staff turnover, which in turn impacts on performance. The right culture can seriously boost productivity. These five steps could really hone yours.

KNOW YOUR CULTURE
First, know your culture. Most, says Gerard Burke, director of the Business Growth and Development Programme (BGP) at Cranfield School of Management, see it as a combination of values, beliefs and assumptions held in common, as well as the physical artefacts, such as office space, dress code and marketing collateral. It’s  “what people do when there’s nobody watching”, he says.

Do your core tenets apply to everything and everybody you see about you? Chances are you’ll find anomalies. To know what you’re looking for, consider Gerry Johnson and Kevan Scholes’  ‘cultural web’ model, suggests Burke. It identifies six factors, which together form The Paradigm, a ‘world view’:
- Organisational structures (eg dictatorial, hierarchical or flat)
- Power structures (eg considerable power and influence may reside in the hands of your PA)
- Control systems (ie how you measure and reward achievement)
- Physical symbols (eg the office lay-out and the jargon staff use)
- Stories and myths (ie anecdotal evidence of assumed values and behaviours, such as what happened at a Christmas party once or someone who went  ‘above and beyond’)
- Rituals and routines (ie what happens on a regular basis, how you induct and initiate to reinforce desired behaviours).

RECRUIT CAREFULLY
When you started out your staff probably took on a set of values and behaviours straight from you. As the owner-manager and leader it’s inevitable that you were the principal role model. As the business has grown, others have taken on such a role in the eyes of their juniors.  You may not even play an active part in recruitment now.
Think about the words you and your staff use in job ads. By agreeing a set of acceptable terms with your management team relating to skills, knowledge, attitude and behaviour, they’ll be far clearer about what they are looking for. Make sure you’re recruiting in the right places.  You may not want everybody to be the same, but if your workforce tend to be graduates and the business has technical requirements, make sure relationships are in place with the right universities or training centres. And when they come for interview, refine the testing and measurement techniques, bringing the tenets of your culture to the fore.

INDUCT THOROUGHLY
Under ex-boss Jose Mourinho at Chelsea players were required to perform an initiation song. While this may be too crude for your business, do you send a clear message from day one?
Many owner-managers like you spend some time with every new starter, reinforcing values, giving them an overview of the company’s history. Ask questions about perceptions and processes and use the answers. If you want an open culture, make it clear you welcome input and demonstrate that you value it by taking action or giving time to the answers.

COMMUNICATE CONSTANTLY
While your close control dilutes through growth, it’s still possible to communicate your expectations. If you’re not already doing so, ask staff to describe the culture or state the company vision as part of their appraisal form.
The over-arching culture may not apply to every department all the time, where distinct personality types are required and specialisations do develop, such as the heavily goal-oriented sales department. But all this doesn’t mean you can’t use your status occasionally to hammer home messages.
“Some very clever leaders can use symbolic actions to help make the underlying set of values and beliefs more understood and apparent. Take Ralph Halpern. When he merged Burton Group with Debenhams he organised a set-piece entrance – as he walked the floor for the first time staff started applauding,” says Burke.

KEEP ON TOP AS NEEDS CHANGE
Once you’ve honed your culture, don’t stop there. Growth, staff turnover, structural and procedural changes could create kinks in your culture. It’s up to you to keep on top of it – and there are lots of ways to monitor and reinforce your messages.
Carry out a perception audit, 360 degree appraisals, or get an independent agency to take an employee survey. Talk to clients and suppliers informally and get them to tell you how your staff interact with them by checking they’re happy with service levels. Once you are clear about what you have and what you want it’s time to cascade down through the key processes.
Dotted around this are six examples of businesses that have deciphered what matters most to their success. Each has a different focus, and while their cultures may be about more besides, each of the owner-managers interviewed demonstrates that it’s down to you to drive it.

THE CULTURE OF INNOVATION
Sean Phelan
Founder of online mapping service Multimap
Employees: 120

“We encourage intrapreneurialism. We use two approaches – top-down innovation, developing what customers want, and bottom-up. The second type goes through a company ‘wiki’. Ideas are proposed anonymously, debated, and voted on. The best rise to the top on merit. If they get the go-ahead the person responsible can develop the idea or let someone ‘adopt’ it. We have around 100 proposed – 20 are active. 10% of total technical capacity goes on innovation; this may rise to 15%. At ‘show and tells’ work is presented and we hold innovation weeks, where developers have no work scheduled. Innovation is also on the agenda at our annual strategy day. It’s difficult to measure a project’s value, but achievements get peer recognition and form part of appraisals. An idea a few people think is brilliant and others think is terrible might just be the next iPod.”

THE CLIENT-FACING CULTURE
Julia Gosling
Director of marketing agency mabox
Employees: 15

“Our client-focused culture has been key and is based on the idea that we’ve been in their shoes. The vast majority of the client-facing team, from the MD down, has worked on the client side. That’s a strong differentiator and the drive to form the agency in the first place. The culture is partly driven from the top and partly through recruitment decisions. We look for account managers who have worked on the client-side as marketing managers and each recruit adds depth to the proposition. Events, such as walking tours of London, and marketing materials also drive culture, underlining that ‘we have been in your shoes’. Internal documents such as contracts are branded accordingly. Financial performance is displayed as walking boots climbing up a board and the Christmas party awards are shoes instead of Oscars. In terms of service we help clients write the brief, focus on achieving the business objectives and stick to budgets and deadlines.”


THE SALES CULTURE
Simon Camilleri
Managing director of business information provider Creditsafe
Employees: 200

“It’s hard sales with a soft edge here. There is a culture of tribalism driven by the office environment. Music plays all day – and it’s not soft background music, it’s pumping dance music or whatever the guys want to keep energy levels up. Bells ring when someone makes a sale and a screen shows the number of calls, online product demos and sales each person makes. Music is loud enough for clients to hear – but mostly they love it and our customer base has grown from 0 to 23,000 in five years. Desks go up at the push of a button, so salespeople can stand and project their voice, which helps them sell, and headsets mean they can pace up and down to keep the adrenaline pumping. We recruit for attitude, train for skills, and interviewees are given a 15-minute break where they sit on the floor. Some walk out, but it shows they weren’t right for us, and we weren’t right for them.”

THE OPEN CULTURE
Rob Chapman
CEO of computer training business
Firebrand Training
Employees: 100

“The founding culture was one of openness and trust and this is something we’ve nurtured. The office is open-plan, there is a flat structure and anybody can talk to anyone at any time. Financial information is shared at regular company meetings and staff are always kept informed. We were frank about the decision to re-brand and staff played a key role in deciding on the new name – Firebrand. A committee comprised of members drawn from each department worked alongside the agency and we posted bulletin boards online so everyone could have their say. In the end it was a consensus decision and this has increased the sense of loyalty – one liked the new name so much he has had it tattooed on his back! The open culture also extends to interviews, where a candidate meets all the key people they will be working with and is often invited to the pub with all of us on a Friday night.”

THE ETHICAL CULTURE
Miles Bingham
Marketing director of child savings provider Family Investments
Employees: 300

“The ethical culture has evolved over the years. We were one of the founding fathers of ethical investments 10 years ago and, more recently, child trust funds and a tree is planted every time one is sold – 3,000 to date. Our ethical values manifest through our award-winning work in the community. A full-time community manager decides on worthy projects. She also does a lot of floor walking, letting staff know about single, group or company-wide projects they can get involved with. Everyone is given three days off a year for this, and projects have included staging mock interviews for teenagers and taking blind children horse riding. While this is not enforced, it doesn’t need to be. Our internal values are instilled at induction and our location in Brighton – ‘the green capital of England’ – means we attract like-minded people. For many our values are central to why they work here and initiatives are often led by staff,
such as introducing Fair Trade drinks.”

THE TECHNICAL CULTURE
Charles Davis
CEO of IT networks consultancy SAS Group
Employees: 60

“Demands in our sector have changed. We’re dealing with convergence of technologies and the interdependencies that entails. We’ve got to be a master rather than a jack of all trades. Clients no longer want to deal with five different specialists. The people we recruit will have been ‘tracked’ for two or three years. And it takes the same time to ‘grow’ a person in-house. We spend £100,000 a year on training in technical accreditations, customer service, commercial training, and process training to consolidate systems we use. They spend 30% of their time in technical training, which is high, and the rest on-site going through different sides of the business, working with engineers, project managers, and sales people. They have to be thirsty to learn, trustworthy, accountable and able to engage with clients. The average solution will require 10 suppliers, 50-60 devices, and will be implemented across six client sites. If they miss one element the solution won’t work, so we have to make sure that they’re fully up to speed to maintain service levels.”