Improve Your Company Culture with These Tools & Strategies

Some business trends are long-lasting and withstand changing attitudes and the tests of time. Others are fleeting and quickly replaced by the next fad to catch headlines. However, one business trend that’s not going away anytime soon is the impact of technology and culture.

Company culture is important to the success of any company and its employees. In a survey of global CEOs, culture was named one of the top five factors affecting long-term company value. When technology and culture intersect, companies experience a range of benefits, from improved internal employee networking and productivity to enhanced career development opportunities.

The Importance of Corporate Culture

Company culture is more than a dress code or tradition of celebrating coworkers’ birthdays. It encompasses the entire mission and values of the organization, as well as the aggregate of employee attitudes and behaviors.

There are many components of company culture, but some of the key elements include:

• Communication: How employees interact with each other, collaborate, and provide feedback

• Organization Structure: How a company organizes itself and leverages its structure to meet key goals

• People: The various skills, knowledge, and behaviors of employees and leaders

• Engagement: The level of commitment employees have to the company, its mission, and its customers

How Technology Enhances Company Culture

In the digital age, technology has transformed workplaces around the globe. Collaboration tools bring remote teams closer together on projects, and big data and AI have elevated business activities like employee recruitment and client engagement.

Technology helps promote company culture by improving employee productivity and making jobs easier. For example, a sales manager with a powerful CRM no longer has to spend time poring over manual sales records. Instead, the manager can use that time to connect and build relationships with direct reports and clients. When the manager has more time to make connections with others, a culture based on mutual respect, trust, and teamwork has the opportunity to thrive.

Technology also improves communication between employees, which helps promote a culture of collaboration and inclusion. Social messaging tools, video conferences, and company chat platforms allow individuals and teams to share ideas and solve problems together, instead of allowing silos to form.

Technology and Culture: A Powerful Combination

Poor culture can hamper an organization’s ability to reach its goals, but technology can put the organization back on track. Here are some useful tips for leveraging technology to improve company culture:

• Make it relevant: Select technology solutions that are relevant and help employees work smarter. Implementing a tech solution that isn’t the best fit for your organization may actually cause employees to become less productive and engaged.

• Reward employees who support the culture: Consider employee development tools like gamified reward systems or performance feedback platforms that provide healthy incentives for employees to support the culture. Two-way feedback tools not only engage employees but also let them have a say in how the culture evolves.

• Bring the culture alive: Live org charts help employees see and understand company culture by helping them put a name to a face and see exactly where their role fits within the larger context of the organization.

When combined, technology and culture can ignite employee productivity and engagement, transforming how individuals execute and collaborate in the workplace. Every organization is different, thus some tech tools may be more relevant than others. However, no matter your company’s size or industry, the powerful mix of technology and culture can revolutionize internal processes and systems, and breathe new life into your organization.