The longer I have been in the commercial cleaning business, the more I am convinced that a solid company culture is a key to success. The soul of your organization gives unique life to what is otherwise an ordinary service business. If you don’t have a unified culture, then different parts of your company will take on different cultures. Some of those may be good and others will be toxic. As the leader of your organization, it is critical that you work toward a unified culture throughout, consisting of a vision and core values.
So how can you achieve this unified culture despite different people spread over a large geography. It is hard, but let me suggest 8 ways you can achieve this goal.
- Establish a core purpose and values. While blatantly obvious, this step is often skipped. Get your key leader together and discover your company purpose and values. You can’t push culture if you can’t describe what it is.
- Have weekly manager meetings. Your supervisors and managers that work with cleaners each night must be your key champions of culture. Ensure a weekly meeting with them and make culture a part of that meeting.
- Record an introductory video for all new employees. With smart phones and YouTube, you can create a free video that is sent out to every new employee. This is another great way to kick start new employees.
- Write a company newsletter. With Mailchimp or Microsoft Word, you can create a company newsletter and distribute it to all employees with little to no cost. This is a great way to regularly emphasize culture.
- Have a periodic picnic for all employees. At my company, we have four branch office. In the last year, they have started having local picnics for their team members. This is a great way to get everyone together, bond, and send a strong message.
- Send hand written notes to team members. Buy a stack of “Thank You” cards and make it a point to write a hand written note to a few employees each week. If you have a large number of employees, spread this responsibility among several key leaders in the company.
- Have your purpose and values listed on badges or other company items that team members see or use nightly. Putting your purpose or values in front of your team each and every night not only shows them the importance of culture, but it provides a daily reminder of it.
- Reward or recognize people displaying company values. Finally, put your money where your mouth is. Make it a point to spend some time, money, and energy in rewarding actions in line with your company culture. This sends a loud message.
If you have other ideas, I’d love to hear them. Send me an email: jordan@elitebusinesscoaching.net
