7 Signs of Bad Company Culture
Introduction: What is Company Culture?
Company culture is the set of shared values that define how employees behave and what they believe in. While culture is intangible, it can be felt in the air of any office, physical or remote.
Culture isn't just about what you do, it’s about how you do it and the perception of your organization. Having a bad company culture is like having a proverbial ghost at the feast - any current employees or potential hires will sense that energy, making it harder to attract and retain workers in a fierce job market.
Bad company culture affects more than just employee turnover - it contributes to employee experience and how the people in your organization react to every aspect of what you do. This can lead to low employee morale, poor customer service or bad vendor relationships, and decreased revenue. As a leader, you need to look out for signs of bad company culture.
What Are Some Signs of Bad Company Culture?
Not all companies are created equal. It’s important to understand that company culture may be completely different depending on the industry. The employee turnover for a restaurant is naturally going to be higher than an architectural firm. The core values of an orchestra are probably not going to align with those of a corporate lobbying company. So be sure to think about these in the context of your organization, and read about how to approach measuring company culture at the end of this article.
Bad Company Culture Sign #1: No Core Values
Core values are the backbone of a company. They define what the company stands for and what it represents. Core values are not just something that can be highlighted in an employee handbook and forgotten - they are necessary for a company to succeed. If you have no core values, or they are an afterthought, you are setting yourself up for failure.
If you want your company to be successful, then you need to have core values that align with your business goals. By choosing the right core values, you can help your employees understand their roles and responsibilities better.
Bad Company Culture Sign #2: High Employee Turnover
Employee turnover is a significant problem for many organizations. The cost of hiring and training new staff can be expensive, and there is a measurable loss of productivity when an employee leaves AND when an employee is hired – some estimates put a new team member’s productivity at around 25% for the first 30 days of employment. You don’t want to rehire unless it is absolutely necessary.
What’s worse, is that having high employee turnover is both a symptom and a cause of bad company culture. People will want to leave your team if they aren’t aligned with the culture, and this culture will get even more shaky as current employees have to constantly adapt to new team members.
Bad Company Culture Sign #3: Lack of Acknowledgement, Praise, and Rewards
In the workplace, employees can often feel underappreciated for their labor. This can happen when they are not given any praise, or worse – praise is misplaced on other employees or team leaders. When this happens, it is easy to see how employees can lose motivation and stop caring about the company's mission.
Part of the employee experience, and how it can lead to a good or bad company culture overall, is how people are rewarded for their hard work. Acknowledgment is key.
Bad Company Culture Sign #4: No Collaboration
When employees don't collaborate with each other, it’s bad for morale and bad for revenue. Not only will a lack of collaboration impact company culture, but it will also stop the valuable exchange of ideas within your organization.
Whether from internal competition between individuals or siloed teams, a lack of collaboration is a killer for your company – a company should be more than the sum of its parts, and this isn’t possible if teams aren’t working together and communicating clearly.
Bad Company Culture Sign #5: Bad Reviews
A company's reputation is an important factor in its success. With more and more people doing research before they accept a job offer, companies need to make sure they are putting their best foot forward when it comes to their reputation – and the first place that potential new hires conduct that research is Glassdoor.
Glassdoor is a warning sign for a flawed company culture – negative reviews and stories of a bad employee experience can dissuade people from applying for a role.
Bad Company Culture Sign #6: Office Politics
Office politics is typical of a toxic workplace. It is often seen in the form of office gossip, internal competition, the formation of cliques, and even bullying. These are all indicators that something is wrong with your company culture.
People who work in politics-filled workplaces can’t be productive because they can’t make any meaningful connections with their coworkers. Remember the point above - collaboration is a key facet to a company’s success. How can an employee participate in the meaningful exchange of ideas when they are worried that someone will stab them in the back?
Bad Company Culture Sign #7: Company Culture Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
KPIs are vital for high performance in most aspects of running a company. You probably have KPIs for revenue, profitability, and marketing success – why should company culture be any different? Metrics like sick days taken, productivity, and vacation days used can give you a data-driven perspective.
You can be sure that these metrics won't tell you everything, but they will give you an insight into your company culture. The most important aspect of this is to ensure that the KPIs are designed to inform you of what is important to YOUR organization. Data about things that you don’t care about is a waste of time.
Make Sure You Are Looking in the Right Place
After reading this article, you are probably itching to go and analyze your own company culture. Good! Changing a bad company culture is one of the most important and often overlooked goals for an organization. Having a good company culture can improve employee experience, help you retain valuable staff members, and ultimately increase your revenue. But one last warning – make sure you are looking in the right places.
Because company culture is intangible, measuring it and changing it for the better can be difficult. Before you get started, come up with a plan for how you are going to tackle this task, and think about KPIs and approaching it from a data-driven perspective. By doing this, you are starting from a solid, evidence driven and thoughtful base.
Don’t ignore company culture – start thinking about it today.
Uncharted Way can help with measuring and improving the employee experience at your organization. We have a three-step process that puts an emphasis on data and actionable strategies to help you create the company culture that works for you and your bottom line. Schedule a 15-minute introductory call today.
Meridith Marshall is the CEO and Founder of Uncharted Way and has seen firsthand how people and organizations can navigate the most difficult of circumstances with clarity and openness to improve employee experience and culture in their workplace. She is an industry-recognized expert in using a data-driven approach, and is an Interaction Associates trained facilitator and certified Co-Active coach.