Company culture is more than just having a ping pong table and the occasional happy hour. It’s the essence of a business: the pervasive vision, values, and systems pulsing within employees, management, atmosphere and more. Some like to call it the genetic code of a company, though in some circumstances it can be more malleable than that. More and more, good company culture is being recognized as vital to a company’s success; on the flip side, toxic culture has been witnessed contributing to huge failures. Built into business at its most basic level, company culture is both the result of a company’s structure and the support that keeps it standing. It’s both an outcome of hiring choices, and the force that drives them. It’s a self-perpetuating cycle: a company shapes its culture and the culture shapes the company, over and over or all at once.

1. How Company Culture
Shapes Business Outcomes
B e n n a t B e r g e r

2. Company culture is the essence of a business:
the pervasive vision, values, and systems
pulsing within employees, management,
atmosphere and more.

3. Even if the company starts with just one person
— its founder — a culture is born from that
individual’s choices when it comes to hiring and
leadership.

4. Even if the company starts with just one person
— its founder — a culture is born from that
individual’s choices when it comes to hiring and
leadership.
With each new decision and addition, the culture
grows for better or for worse.

5. Company Culture as Motivation

6. Basic needs like food, water and shelter can be met
by money, yes, but a whole pyramid of needs exist
beyond the staples of life — like safety, love and
belonging, self-esteem, and self-actualization.

7. Basic needs like food, water and shelter can be met
by money, yes, but a whole pyramid of needs exist
beyond the staples of life — like safety, love and
belonging, self-esteem, and self-actualization.
A workplace that makes employees (and clients)
feel safe, welcome, proud and confident will yield
higher result than monetary value alone.

8. Factors like robust benefits, comfortable office
space, amenities, extracurriculars and relationship
building shape the culture, which in turn motivates
employees and impacts productivity.

9. The Benefits of Good Culture

10. Research suggests that companies with strong,
substantial, and adaptive cultures outperform their
counterparts when they emphasize customers,
employees and investors, fit the business
environment and adapt to change.

11. Culture is onboarding, work-life integration, and an
ignition of passion that leaves workers positive
about everything from mundane tasks to
advancement opportunities.

12. Culture is onboarding, work-life integration, and an
ignition of passion that leaves workers positive
about everything from mundane tasks to
advancement opportunities.
Positive culture makes for happier employees,
better business, and also leads to employee
retention, which saves time and money on hiring
and training.

13. The Risks of Toxic Culture

14. There are many qualities that signify a potentially
toxic culture, or at the very least a dysfunctional
one.

15. There are many qualities that signify a potentially
toxic culture, or at the very least a dysfunctional
one.
Many of these stem from bad leadership, which
tends to trickle down into management and
employee well-being.

16. There are many qualities that signify a potentially
toxic culture, or at the very least a dysfunctional
one.
Many of these stem from bad leadership, which
tends to trickle down into management and
employee well-being.
Some signs include poor health, high stress,
discomfort, fear, and a host of other issues that
compromise the hierarchy of needs, as mentioned
previously.

17. Bad culture costs more than just feelings —
productivity is lower, communication is strained,
leading to bad business.

18. Turning a Culture Around

19. Changing a culture entirely is a daunting and
possibly impossible task. But culture can always be
improved, if those with the most influence are
willing.

20. Changing a culture entirely is a daunting and
possibly impossible task. But culture can always be
improved, if those with the most influence are
willing.
And there are better ways than simply
implementing a Taco Tuesday — like engaging
employees with tasks, policies, and initiatives that
keep them motivated and happy, or simply making
them know their input matters.

21. Articulating company vision and ethics, supporting
worker health and wellbeing, providing
opportunities for training and development,
fostering camaraderie, and encouraging healthy
work-life balance can also go a long way.

22. Articulating company vision and ethics, supporting
worker health and wellbeing, providing
opportunities for training and development,
fostering camaraderie, and encouraging healthy
work-life balance can also go a long way.
At worst, these steps will give employees a slight
boost; at best, they will shape the entire business
for the better.

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