5 Keys to an Insanely Great Company Culture!
Company culture is a key component to any thriving business. It has been described as the only truly unique competitive advantage one company has over the other; it is the DNA or soul of the organization.
For that reason, when a company’s culture is strong, aligned, defined, and properly guided, magical things happen!
For us at Roma Moulding, magical things are happening! We have placed culture and the happiness of our teams and partners at center stage. This has allowed us as a team to over come any obstacles, challenge the status quo, build long standing partnerships, drive innovation, embrace change and most of all aim to delivery an insanely great experience.
Here are 5 ways to keep your culture great:
1. Hire for Culture
Building an insanely great culture starts with the people you decide to have on your respective teams. Investing time and effort to ensure the proper person is selected is fundamental to the success of the team and will pay off huge in the long run. Hire really slow. At Roma, we have several steps in the interview process. After a series of interviews, the candidate is called in for a final culture conversation. This is where we assess the individual’s values to our Roma 10 Core Values. Should the candidate possess all the skills for the job, but not align with our culture; that person does not get hired. While skills are important to the success of building great teams, at Roma, the candidate must align to our culture in order to become family! Skills can be taught, culture cannot!
2. Empower your Teams
Nothing says you trust a person more than when you empower them! In order to build a great culture, you must remember to trust your people. Create a space of trust and your teams will go above and beyond your expectations. At Roma, we train and coach our people to do just that. The more a person feels empowered, the more he or she feels connected to that project or task, the result is heightened loyalty and an increased vested interest in success! While empowering teams is great, you must be willing to have team members fail occasionally as it goes hand in hand with trust.
3. Challenge the Status Quo
Whether you’re leading an ice cream shop or heading a large grocery chain, innovation is an ingredient needed for success! At Roma, Core Value number six is to inspire innovation and drive change. This value is instilled into everything we do, from our customer experience to production techniques, to our marketing tools and our new headquarter design. It forces us to think differently and to find solutions to make things easier, quicker, smarter, more effective and most of all fun!
4. Deliver Clear, Transparent, Honest, Communication
Don’t be afraid to over communicate! Building a sustainable company culture requires clear, transparent, honest communication. It requires leaders to consistently send a clear message as well as constantly reinforcing the value in that message. At Roma, we take communicating very seriously. As a commitment to communication, we conduct three company “All Hands” meetings. Each meeting we close our entire company from 10:45am through 12:30am (1hour 45mins). We stream it live over the internet, so that all our locations can view it along with our valued partners, suppliers, friends and families. It is open for all to see! Today, our All Hands meetings are bigger than ever, with various speakers, videos, sneak peaks, highlights, and educational segments. Our purpose is to be transparent, real and live, leaving our viewers Moved, Inspired & WOWed!
5. Love What You Do and Have Fun
Do what you love and love what you do… we also want to add, and have an abundance of fun while doing it! At Roma, we truly aim to blur the lines between work and play… together we have made the two so fuzzy, that we call it living!!! When you do what you love, it no longer becomes work; it actually becomes bigger than you. Take breathing as an example, you don’t work at breathing, you just do it and you do it really well all day every day. We often use this analogy as a bench mark for what we do everyday. In order to do great work, you must love it… love it like you love breathing; because it will get hard, often difficult and challenging. Find people who are insanely passionate about their area of work, put them together, let them play; the results will blow you away!