Companies that are at the top of Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work build a culture that inspires innovation, dedication, and enthusiasm for their employees. Company culture is the shared values, attitudes, behaviors, and standards that make up a work environment. Here are 15 tips to building a strong company culture.

1. Accept that company culture matters and support culture efforts with vigor

Company culture is not just a buzzword; it has a huge impact on your business. Accepting that company culture matters will attract top talent, improve retention rates, and increases productivity. With acceptance and understanding, now support culture development with great attention and effort.

2. Define and share the company’s mission, values, and goals

The foundation of any strong culture is the company’s mission, values and goals. Employees want their time at work to mean something. That’s why it’s crucial to define and clearly communicate what your company aims to accomplish.

3. Encourage healthy communication

Rather than hoping people will cooperate the way you’d like them to, it’s better to outline the main principles you believe will help build a positive work environment and share them throughout the organization. Create communication guidelines, and make sure managers and executives lead by example. Train managers to tactfully address any issue, show everyone respect, support their employees, and encourage open communication at all levels.

4. Prioritize employee well-being

Employees who feel good at work are the heartbeat of a positive company culture, so don’t hesitate to invest in the well-being of your people. When it comes to benefits that improve company culture, employees consider professional development opportunities, flexible work schedules and mental health support to be the most important.

5. Continuously monitor and nurture the culture

Creating a positive work environment where everyone feels valued, respected, and welcomed takes time, so your work is not finished after defining a few main principles. You have to promote them continuously and make sure everything your company does reflects your core values.

6. Be authentic

Your purpose and values will only create a solid foundation if you and your employees truly believe in them. Make them believable, achievable, yet aspirational. The process must be genuine.

7. Create listening posts

If you are listening to your employees, it will allow you to see if you are motivating your employees or if you need to make a change in your business. Sending out surveys to your employees is a great way to gather this information.

8. Accept and learn from mistakes

An environment that can openly acknowledge that mistakes happen is a great place to work. When a mistake is made, examine that mistake, and see how your business can learn from it.

9. Watch trends

The goal is to create momentum in a positive direction. Once you create a survey, never stop paying attention to what your employees are telling you.

10. Encourage work-life balance to reduce stress

Employees should not be working 80-100 hours per week and give up personal time to achieve success. Encourage your employees to take time off.

11. Make sure employees know your expectations

If you’re working through how to build culture in a company, make sure existing employees understand the company expectations for job performance.

12. Use digital tools and digital workplace

Your company may hire employees to work in your home office, on the road, or remotely. Use a variety of digital tools to help all workers stay in touch with each other and feel as though they are part of the same corporate team.

13. Recognize employee achievements

A key component is ensuring that your employees feel that they matter. One way is recognizing your employee when they reach a milestone or exceed expectations.

14. Remind employees that their work matters

Employees want to feel that they made a difference in the company, therefore, support and acknowledge your employees, both informally and formally.

15. Create opportunities for employees to build relationships

Successful companies understand the value of building positive relationships between employees. The key to developing these effective working relationships lies in giving employees opportunities to get to know each other in less formal circumstances.

A positive company culture will be rewarded in so many ways including lower employee turnover, reduced retention costs, boosted productivity and increased teamwork.

Company Culture Resources

How To Build A Strong Corporate Culture In Five Steps (Forbes)

Six Tips for Building a Better Workplace Culture (Harvard DCE)

10 Steps to Build a Successful Company Culture (Lumapps)