Importance of Company Culture – Brandon Wilson
importance of company culture
SUMMARY
Sometimes as companies grow, they would tend to forget the importance of company culture and would lose their cohesiveness.Building a strong company culture starts in the hiring process. It’s important that the people who will be working for the company are aligned with the values and beliefs of the company. The leaders in the company should be taking the lead in conveying and embodying the values of the company to maintain the company culture.On this episode, we have Brandon Wilson. He is currently the Market Development Manager of Office Pride Commercial Cleaning, one of the fastest growing franchises.Brandon shares his perspective about company culture and why does it matter in a business. He also shares also how to identify the right person to work for your business.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Company culture is not just about the services or products that the business offers. It is about the people in the company, the beliefs, and what the business stands for.For company culture to be preserved, you would need people who are aligned with company’s core values and what the company believes in.Sometimes when the company starts to expand, the company culture tends to falter.To ensure that the company values stay while it grows, make sure that the leadership that was placed actively communicates and lives the values while working.In building a strong company culture, you have to go with what you’re passionate about.People want to connect with people. People want to connect with values and not just with brands or logos.Make the business stand for something deeper than just the service you offer.TRANSCRIPTION: Importance of Company Culture – Brandon Wilson
Kamala ChambersWelcome to the show. On this episode, we’re going to be talking about the importance of company culture, how to create it, and really get your mission of your company dialed in.
Luis CongdonToday’s guest is Brandon Wilson. He’s the Marketing Development Officer for Office Pride, one of the fastest growing franchises in the nation. They also won some incredible awards for being one of the best franchises for women to join in 2017.Without further ado, let’s welcome Brandon to the show.All right Thriving Launchers, we are here with Brandon Wilson. Hey Brandon, are you ready to launch?
Brandon Wilson I am! Thanks for having me on.
Luis CongdonIt’s fantastic to have you. You guys have done some really great things with growing your company and getting some amazing awards.
Overview Of The Importance of Company Culture
Luis CongdonOne of the things that I wanted to talk about today is as your company has grown, there’s that thing that happens with companies and I’ve noticed it having worked for very large companies and small companies that they’re small and then they grow and they become bigger.One of those things is company culture, creating an environment where people feel there’s cohesiveness. Well, there’s a certain kind of culture that makes people want to be part of what’s happening and as a company grows, I noticed that they tend to lose that. They forgot the importance of company culture.I’m curious from your perspective. One, what is called company culture? Two, what is the importance of company culture?
Importance of Company Culture And What It Means
Brandon Wilson I think company culture is who we are, who your company is as a whole more so than just “Hey! What do you sell? What do you do? What’s your service?”It goes down to the roots of who your people are and what you believe in. For me, that’s why the importance of company culture is huge.
Importance Of Company Culture – People Are Attracted To It
Brandon Wilson It used to be you can attract employees or potential customer through just your service or what you sell but now people are really more interested in who you are, what you believe in, and what do you stand for.That’s my 30,000 foot overview about the importance of company culture.
Kamala ChambersI love that.One thing that really helps build that culture is starting with the hiring process.
Recruitment Process Focusing On The Importance Of Company Culture
Kamala ChambersCan you tell me a little bit about that process for you and how it helps to shape your company culture?
Brandon Wilson Yes. I think your hiring and recruitment process really needs to focus on the company culture. You want to have people that align with your core values and what you believe in because ultimately that’s what’s going to keep your culture going for the long run.During the hiring and the interview process, it’s crucial for you to effectively communicate what your company culture is, who you are, what you believe in, and make sure that the person that you’re speaking with that their beliefs and values align with yours.
Luis CongdonHere’s something that I’ve noticed and I’m really curious and interested about how you guys go about it because one of the things I noticed about your company is that you guys are very immediate in letting people know that you are a faith-based company. You are a company who is really grounded in Christianity and faith.
Having The Conversation About The Importance Of Company Culture
Luis CongdonOne of the things I’m curious about is how do you have that kind of conversation in kind of the climate it is of hiring people where you’re not completely allowed to include all of that or ask people what their faith is but somehow that is part of your culture and part of what you guys have as your core values.How do you organize an interview so that messaging can still come across while also not impinging on someone else’s faith or form of spirituality, just checking in to see if the core values align and are similar somehow? How do you do that?
Brandon Wilson Great question!We are very open about being a faith-based organization that’s where we are founded on. All of our core beliefs and values are based on biblical principles.
Importance Of Company Culture – People Become Willing To Operate Within Your Core Values
Brandon Wilson Does that mean you have to be a Christian to be involved in the company? No, it doesn’t but what it does mean is that you need to be willing to operate and conduct yourself within the core values. With that, most of the core values that we have are things that most people have, not necessarily in a faith-based company but just as good business practice; hard work, integrity, accountability. It’s things that go hand in hand with good business practice. – Brandon Wilson
Luis CongdonI’m curious. What kind of question might you ask to make sure that somebody knows the core values and that you guys are faith-based?As somebody who’s been a director of a nonprofit for example and I have my own spiritual views and perspectives. If I was asking somebody a question I might not say “Hey! Are you a Christian?” because I can’t come out and say something like that but I might say–I don’t know how you would phrase those questions and I know that as a Senior Director or as a Manager, I always had to be really careful whenever I brought up anything regarding forms of spirituality.
Importance Of Company Culture – People Have A Strong Connection To Your Core Values
Luis CongdonI’m curious how you guys do that in a way that maintains a strong connection to your core values and that someone else can be aligned with that once they come on board.
Brandon Wilson Yes. Absolutely!I think for us during the interview process, trying to find out if someone’s going to align with the core values like you said, you can’t go out and ask someone “Hey! Do you align with this spiritual belief?”What you can do and what’s more important is to find out if the characteristics and the traits that they carry are aligned with those of yourself and the company.
Importance Of Company Culture – Find Out If People Have The Characteristics That Align With Those Of The Company
Brandon Wilson The way you do that, I think, is asking about situational type of things within the job, within the business environment. You can ask questions regarding past employment, “What would you do in this situation or what have you done in this situation?”But also for the faith-based aspect, you can ask them about volunteer positions that they hold on the outside of employment. That’s a really good way to find out what someone’s beliefs are, what they value , what they hold dear near to their heart is the volunteering that they do outside of work.
Luis CongdonI really like some of those questions especially when you start asking about what does somebody like to do outside of work and what their interests are.I think that’s good for anybody when we’re hiring somebody or when if you are coach, if you’re finding out if somebody’s a fit for you as a client.If you run a company and you want to do business with another company, it’s a great way to find out who is this person really because there’s a whole business relationship that’s happening when you hire somebody or when you do business with someone else but there’s also that deeper relationship that’s happening.
Challenge of Keeping The Importance Of A Company Culture
Luis CongdonI’m curious. As your business has grown, what has been one of the biggest challenges in maintaining that company culture and keeping that cohesiveness with your company and the team` because I know as companies grow they can really struggle with that. It’s been a burden for a lot of company to maintain that strong. What helps a company grow, it becomes more of a challenge to maintain as they get bigger and bigger.
Brandon Wilson Sure. It definitely does. As you grow, as you expand, you do start to lose sight of some of the more intricate details but I think the key part is making sure that the leadership that you have in place and that you put in place carries those beliefs and values that you started with as a small company, as an emerging company or brand.Making sure that the leadership actively communicates the values and lives the values while they’re working. It’s the top down approach. I think that’s one way to help ensure that the company values stay while you grow.
Kamala ChambersOther than what you’ve already mentioned before we go here, I would love to hear what is the top tip that you would give a business owner to help them to really build a strong company culture?
Importance Of Company Culture – Go What You’re Passionate About
Brandon Wilson I think going with what you’re passionate about, ingraining what you feel passionate about as an individual within your company is going to be much easier to sustain that over the long run than just what you think looks good on paper or what sounds good to potential investors.Finding what’s important to you, building that into your company culture, and carrying that for the long run of the company.
Understanding The Importance Of Company Culture Helps Increase Business
Luis CongdonBrandon, I love that we had this conversation today about the importance of company culture. It’s something that I’ve been writing about recently. I’m actually working on this article about how companies that have a mission clearly put that out there as what their mission are, their deeper purpose for doing business and existing, how that actually helps increase business.It may also drive away some potential customers but it also lets your current customers or customers who are potential to be your clients become more like die-hard fans. It makes them more go “I want to do business with them,” and it also lets other people go “I don’t want to do business with them” We have to be willing to lose some to get some.I really connected with that first thing that you said at the beginning is that people want to connect with other people, people want to connect with values and not with just brands or logos. They want to connect with something deeper and that’s really where we are nowadays because there are so many companies doing business in every niche we can imagine.
Importance Of Company Culture – Drawing People In
Luis CongdonThriving Launchers, I’m trying to tell you something here is that make your business stand for something deeper than just the service that you offer. Make it stand for something deeper than what it is that you do but make it about a part of who you are and what you stand for in the world and that will help draw people in.It’s one of the things that’s really helped Office Pride stand out and it’s why you guys have won multiple awards. It’s why we’ve brought you on the show because you guys are doing exemplary and we’re glad that you came on the show.
Let Everyone Know The Importance Of Company Culture For You And Your Company
Luis CongdonBrandon, thank you so much for joining us today and Thriving Launchers make sure to go out and let the world know what you stand for and let your customers and clients know that so that you can win more fans and also let the people who are not connected with you choose someone else.Until next time, Thriving Launchers, we’ll see you on the next episode.
