Culture Shock: Improving Company Culture Through Technology

Any time people have to spend a lot of time together, a culture develops. This defines the values they share as well as how they interact with one another. In the context of the business world, this can significantly impact the success of a company.

Identifying and cultivating your internal culture should be a top priority for a number of reasons. For example, company culture is crucial for your brand identity. When you fully understand the feeling of your organization, it becomes easier to communicate and connect with potential customers because you can find common ground with them. It also has a tremendous effect on employee retention and job satisfaction. That’s because defining the environment within your corporate structure means you should hire only those people who have the qualities that provide the best fit. Without that bond, employees may be distracted, discouraged and distressed.

Fortunately, building and improving your company’s culture is easier today than ever before. Thanks to technology, companies have the ability to foster more connections and become increasingly transparent to their employees. For example, one of the most effective means to strengthen internally is to encourage collaboration. Through the use of conferencing software and cloud-based workstations, it’s a simple matter to have groups of people contribute to a project. Open communication between management and employees also goes a long way toward building a successful workplace. This is where feedback channels and emailed newsletters could make a significant difference.

Your company has a culture whether or not you intend to develop one. To better ensure that your workplace environment is doing more to help your goals than to hurt them, it’s necessary to pay attention to it and nurture its positive aspects. The accompanying infographic contains more information about why fostering your company culture via technology is important — and ways it can be strengthened. 

Author Bio: Chris Cronin is a Partner, Principal Consultant and ISO 27001 Auditor for HALOCK Security Labs, a leading information security firm located in Chicago, IL.  Chris has over 15 years of experience helping organizations with policy design, security controls, audit, risk assessment and information security management systems within a cohesive risk management process.  He is a frequent speaker and presenter at information security conferences and events.