Use HR to create company culture

Did you know that millennials look for culture fit even before career potential when considering new employers? They care about it enough that 64 percent of millennials said they would rather earn $40K at a job they love than $100K in a position they think is boring. Say what you will about millennials, but they ain’t gold diggers.

 

So how do you compete in the culture war when the competition has private chefs, desks that turn into pinball machines, and a waterpark in the basement? One of the most effective strategies is to cultivate an environment that offers flexibility and opportunities for people to grow. Employees care more about advancement and work/life balance than how much money they make. So start fostering a workplace that makes your employees feel valued and cared for even when you don't have the budget to give each and every one of them a free jetpack on signing.

 

Even if you’re not to a point where you can afford a dedicated HR team, find another way to make your HR processes a priority now. You can’t do everything yourself forever, and eventually you’ll have others on your team who are responsible for recruiting, onboarding, training, and measuring the performance of your people. Having established HR processes in place will be critical in keeping culture intact when it’s time to scale.

 

Another crucial part of shaping your culture will be understanding your story and knowing how to tell it. Where did your company come from? Why does it exist? And where is it going? This can help you create authentic company values and ensure those values are understood and faithfully observed throughout the company.

 

From there, make sure your employees also know how to tell the story—especially those running your HR efforts. They need to tell that story in rhythm with the needs of your company, beating your culture drum all the livelong day. So, as you build out your processes, your story and values help dictate the decisions you make. For example, a company that values the 40 hour work week over late nights at the office might decide to forgo a distracting ping-pong table to promote focus, but offer a vacation stipend to encourage quality R&R.

 

Then piece by piece, through every program and activity, your well-thought-out culture will become a beautiful symphony—filled with different instruments and movements, all coordinated to make beautiful and inspiring music. If, right now, you’re not hearing the music at your company, it may be time to turn up the HR.

A great place to start is to make a great hire. Many small business leaders try to save on personnel costs and task the office manager with the basic HR duties: payroll, record keeping, benefits and compliance, and maybe a little recruiting. If you’ve got the budget to hire someone, do it the other way around! Find a talented HR professional who can also handle office management duties.

There is technology in place today that allows HR to run efficiently through automation. Many of the operational tasks that used to take up so much of HR’s time are now easy to automate thanks to HR software. You can keep all important files in one easy-to-access hub, take time off from anywhere, track employee PTO, access performance reviews that actually help, create and manage job postings, run important reports, etc. (etc., etc., etc.). The list of ways HR software improves your life is long and getting longer. And what’s more, this software now fits the needs (and financial budgets) of small businesses and startups. What used to be a luxury only large companies could afford, is now accessible to companies of every size. 

 

And remember those millennials we were discussing earlier? Guess how important technology is to them? It’s verrry important to them. Think how much better you’ll look in their eyes if they can easily check their PTO balance and forecast how many days they’ll have left on such-and-such date. Think how much better you’ll look when they can quickly find an org chart, or update their address on their own, or request time off from their sickbed. Now, think about how they’ll feel if this kind of technology isn’t readily available. It’s a scary thought, isn’t it?

 

Of course, not all tasks can be automated, but you’d be surprised by how many can. And automating is about more than making people’s jobs easier (though it really does that). It’s about getting the most value out of your HR activities. In other words, using HR software is like giving your groundskeeper a riding mower and filling the tank full of high octane fuel. Mow, baby! Mow!

So, if you’ve been paying attention, you’re looking for a queen, with well-manicured lawns, playing cards, and great music. Whoops, we just described The Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland. Hmmm… Well, the point is your HR efforts are vitally important to the growth of your company.

 

Your HR efforts—when performed strategically—allow you from day one to draw the map from here (wherever here is) to the promised land. With the right people, in the right environment, using the right tools, your HR efforts will enable you to conquer any business challenge that comes your way, leaving you with only one word left to say: Checkmate.