Boost Your Bottom Line By Making Your Startup a Great Place To Work

How company culture can increase both revenue and profits

They’re so corporately happy! — image by drobotdean on freepik

One of the career accomplishments I’m proudest of is winning our metro area’s Best Place to Work award five times with two different companies. I can tell you from experience that the benefits of being a Great Place to Work are exponentially worth the effort, including healthy increases to both the top and bottom line.

We weren’t the highest paying company. We didn’t have the best benefits. Our office wasn’t flashy or in a prime location. What we did have was a commitment from company leadership to put us in a position to win.

But we weren’t after a trophy. What we wanted was to create a culture that promoted productivity and results. What we learned is that if company leadership isn’t proactively involved in maintaining that culture, it will never become the kind of asset it should be.

So if you’re not part of your company leadership, talk to them, maybe show them this article. Make sure they see that part about the big increases to both the top and bottom line. And if you are indeed a leader at your company, here are five ways to build a strong company culture.

1. Make company culture a partnership between leadership and human resources

I had a conversation recently with a friend, Ricky Spreo, who is the CEO of local startup Redbud Labs. We were discussing the overlooked parts of our businesses that were actually stealth success levers.

We both highlighted human resources.

Building a great company culture should be the responsibility of HR, but that team is just the boiler room of the engine. All facets of company leadership need to be committed to the steering. If you leave the steering to your HR department, they’ll do fine, but you’ll be lacking the influence of leadership’s vision.

2. Great company culture starts with smart hiring

According to Spero, smart hiring is the key to executing better than everyone else. As CEO, he uses these simple rules to produce smart hires every time: