Il'ya Dudkin 25/06/2018 #Tips 8 min readThe importance of having a strong company culture is obvious to everyone, but achieving the desired level of excellence can be quite challenging. In fact, there are so many ideas out there that the entire notion of company culture has become a cliche. You also have to consider that since there so many departments within your company, each of them will have a work style that better suits them. Some are more logical, others are more emotions oriented, some get the big picture others get lost in the smallest details. This is why it is important to take into consideration not only psychological aspects of working in the office environment but also technological which may help to improve interdepartmental communication and organize work processes.Here are some tips you can implement today to improve your corporate culture.1. Let no crisis go to wasteIf a crisis occurred because you have been overlooking company culture, you can use this as an opportunity to grow and hasten cultural changes that would, otherwise, be difficult if it was not for such an incident. Since, in most cases, there are stakeholders who defend the status quo, people usually need a spark for them to look beyond the next task on their to-do list. Use a crisis, or an incident to achieve a catharsis – a process of releasing your suppressed emotions. So, instead of just trying to weather the storm, try to come out stronger on the other side of it.This does not mean having a blame session where everybody airs their grievances. It is important to do this in a constructive way because otherwise, the situation can spiral out of proportion. A good way to manage such situations is one-on-one consultations where people can be honest without being afraid that they are being judged. It is also possible to do this through technology such as a corporate intranet or mobile app where you can schedule meetings or file concerns. 2. Technology to the rescueThere are a lot of things that go on in your company such as birthdays, anniversaries team buildings and any other exciting news and events. All of these positive events can boost morale and make your office a better place to work. However, it can be difficult to get the news out about upcoming events by word of mouth alone. But do not worry, technology is here to save the day. A good example of such technology is a mobile application that was created for the American Chamber of Commerce. Thanks to this app, user involvements in events increased by 23% during the first month after release. It also facilitated the event registration process as well as the work of ACC personnel as a whole since they no longer need to create a daily newsletter with up to date information about events.Try something like this with your company. If you want people to get more involved in the company’s day-to-day life and get a better feeling of team unity and cohesion, a corporate messenger or a mobile app developed by Skywell Sofware may be the perfect solution for you.3. Think of culture as the company’s immune systemIn an ideal world, a company should value and celebrate everyone’s contribution thus directly affecting recruitment and retention. On the contrary, an unhealthy workplace environment can lead to tarnishing the company reputation especially in the age of social media. Just like a human’s immune system can become depleted, a rundown company culture will compromise employee resilience and they become susceptible to toxic elements within the company. Try to celebrate each individual employee’s success as a success for the entire company and try to get this news out to everybody via a corporate messenger, social media, regular meeting or any other method. The more attention you pay to your employees, especially the ones bringing tangible success, the better. 4. Change starts at the very topOnly leaders who are strong enough and mature enough to keep a cool head regardless of the situation can make the best decision for the company. Regardless of age, when employees see company executives as examples of proper behavior, it creates a domino effect and other employees will follow suit, especially if they will be promoted or celebrated. This is especially true for millennials, who expect a company to stand for something other than just pure profit. If you cannot build trust with your employees, how can you do it with your customers?5. Make your office environment work better for womenA lot of workplaces are governed by the “bro code” or the “old boy” network which only divides your workplace. It is driven by a “growth above all” policy and it glorifies a burnout. There is a lot of discussions nowadays about gender equality and how there should be more female leaders in every profession, but how are we ever supposed to get there if we do not change the everyday experience of female workers in entry-level positions? Drunk parties and rah-rah motivational speeches are not going to cut it.Start with payment equality. Make sure that your female workers are getting the same amount of money as their male colleagues for doing the same job, recognize biases against women when you see them and, in general, be on the lookout for new, up and coming female talent.Building an outstanding company culture is one of the noblest and rewarding challenges that you can take on. If you have a great corporate culture, you will be able to attract the best talent, increase retention rates, boost performance and lower costs.