Written by: Enviable Workplaceon  May 29, 2013

Since Enviable Workplace began in 2010, we’ve been trying to find better ways to help articulate and make tangible the characteristics of great company culture. You feel solid culture when you come across a company that has it, from the quality of the people, the environment to the bottom line. In other words: the right offering + marketing + the right company culture = profit and wellbeing.  It’s breaking apart the elements that comprise of company culture, admittedly, that’s been a process we didn’t expect.

We’ve drawn criticism from some calling company culture a cop out term, something used by people who cannot identify the root issue that is causing a company to struggle or flourish. In many ways we agree with Scott Adams, American creator of the Dilbert comic strip who just earlier this year wrote:

Company culture is another area that I think the experts get backwards. The common belief is that you need a good company culture to create success. But isn’t it more likely that companies with awesome employees get both a good culture and success at the same time? A good corporate culture is a byproduct of doing everything right; it’s not the cause of success as much as the outcome. Success improves culture more than a good culture can cause success.

Growing with our peers we feel that culture is in the sum of key workplace elements and it’s never static. This has lead us to identify six elements often found in companies that have good culture:

• Vision & Values
• Leadership
• Branding
• Talent Acquisition
• Employee Engagement
• Physical Space

Is this a new finding? Of course not. Is it complete list of elements? Hardly (one of the big reasons we need readers to spot what’s missing). Oh the money and favors we’d pay to have a slick formula to help you improve your culture. But the more we research and work in the this space the more plainly we see: the truth is culture can be bedraggled and slippery – and the best attempts to pin it down, don’t.

The only consistent approach that works for us when attempting to make company culture tangible is by isolating and reviewing each respective element. Through this process we’ve connected with other element specialists along the way who’re equally excited about sharing their expertise, to help make a real difference in this new world of work. These labmates share our discipline in helping companies to create the enviable workplaces that will attract, engage and ultimately better retain the best people in their marketplaces.

We’ve also learnt over the course of our journey what we need to be better at in creating great posts for you the reader to digest – because some of our old blog posts just flat out sucked and so we’ve tossed them. Moving forward what you can expect:

Firstly, we’re putting a lot of focus on quality control. We want to post up something that will really give you something you’re able to take back and implement in to your workplace to help improve your company culture. We also won’t flood your inbox as we know how annoying that is. We’ll post no more than once a week.

Secondly, we’re introducing in our new ‘Elements’ page. This is designed to help break down the different components that go together in creating enviable company culture. This will allow us to better focus on these individual areas, whether it’s leadership, physical space or brand message, and we’ll rotate our content focus so you’re better able to address the immediate or specific problem areas you’re encountering in your workplace today.

Lastly, we’re always looking to share examples of great company culture out there so please do get in touch if you’d like us to promote something you’re doing in creating awesomeness at work.

We look forward to connecting on the next step of the journey.

Andy & Filip (Founders)