Nurturing Company Culture is the Pinnacle of Success by CEO Lindsey Graves

Company culture is the heartbeat of an organization. It’s the collective mindset, values, and behaviors that define who we are and how we operate. A strong, positive culture is not just a nice-to-have, but a must-have for any company aiming for sustained success. According to a recent Gallup and Workhuman report, “84% of the value of an S&P 500 company comes from the talents, skills, knowledge, work ethic and health of its employees.”

The way many people view work has changed over the past several years. Leaders must recognize that this presents an opportunity to build and leverage a culture that not only attracts top talent to their organizations but engages them in a way that makes them want to stay and drive that culture forward.

Employees are not looking for ping pong tables in the lounge; they’re looking for a place where they have flexibility, supportive coworkers and leadership, opportunities for professional growth and career development, and occasionally can have a little fun. Our organization’s core values – relationships, responsive, accountable, flexible, and loyal – aren’t just the standards we have for our customers – we hold ourselves to them as well.

Start by embedding culture within your hiring process.

It can often be challenging to determine whether a candidate is going to be a cultural fit – but it doesn’t have to be. When we make someone an offer, it’s because we want to invest in them for their entire career. Tools like the Predictive Index can help an organization understand a candidate from a psychometric level and determine whether they are going to be a fit before bringing them on board.

We also place high value on personalizing the onboarding experience for each new hire to make sure that no matter how much we grow, each person feels like they belong here. Our recruitment classes are currently no more than a few people at a time, with less than 10 new hires training and onboarding together at a time, and we have no plans to change that.

Fostering career progression and professional growth.

Following onboarding, a dedicated training team monitors the progress of each of our new hires, evaluating if they’ve developed the skills they should have for their respective roles within 30, 60 and 90 days. This helps identify any gaps in areas where reskilling or upskilling is necessary.

But that isn’t where professional development should end. For entry-level employees – and even those with more mature careers – showing them where they are, what they can achieve, and creating a roadmap for how they can get there can make all the difference.

There are a few ways we’re doing this in our organization:

• Our team has put together an extensive online library of tools for continued learning to keep our employees engaged.
• We create an annual curriculum for every leadership level across various business areas and host quarterly sessions for learning and development.
• We’re in the process of piloting what we call “knowledge checks” for employees across different business areas.

It’s one thing to say your company has great customer service or that someone is a great leader, but it’s another to have data to back it up. The knowledge checks are a 300-question test we developed, but each employee is given 80, randomly selected questions to answer. This will enable us to show customers that our team members have all the skills we’ve determined are critical to how they perform their roles. The individual employee results can also be used to even further develop their career maps. If someone wants to advance to the next level, we’ll be able to understand if there is a skill that needs a bit more development to get them there, or if their skills are already exceeding the expectations for their current role.

Creating a culture that has meaning.

Having a culture that your people have a connection with is directly tied to professional and personal satisfaction. Among employees who strongly agree that recognition is an important part of their culture, seven in 10 strongly agree that they feel connected to their organization’s culture.

Employee recognition programs are a strategic way to promote your core values that engage your workforce and can influence key business metrics such as profitability, productivity, turnover, safety – and even customer satisfaction.

Core value programs also allow employees to nominate team members each month for demonstrating a company’s core values. Within our nomination process, we select one winner for each core value to receive pins and recognition for their service. Any employee who receives all five core value pins also wins a cash award – and can be awarded multiple times throughout their career with us. We’ve been running this program since 2018, and each month, we receive between 40-60 nominations.

Great culture also means inclusivity and opportunities to give back. A dedicated culture club with representatives from across the company – headquarters and branches – can help ensure everyone’s interests are represented and keep our staff engaged. Different committees that range from those that enjoy gardening to those who want to champion Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEI&B) initiatives can also improve employee engagement and help them connect with others who have similar interests.

Providing opportunities to live your values in the communities where your employees work through paid time off specifically for volunteering also has direct links to employee engagement and better morale.

Keeping your talent is your greatest success.

Being able to attract great talent is an achievement – but keeping them is the best testament to your culture. Through commitment to your core values, celebrating the successes of your team members, and fostering inclusivity, your organization can create an engaged, responsive employee culture. Employees who love where they work are your best brand ambassadors, both for attracting more great talent to your team and for providing the best customer experience possible.

During my tenure as CEO, we have a 97% employee retention rate. We’re striving to increase that number even more but believe the culture we’ve created thus far is a great foundation for our continued success – and hopefully for yours too.

By: Lindsey Graves
CEO, Sunset Transportation

We’re hiring! Start your Sunset career today.