Company culture is not a nice-to-have benefit, and it’s not a luxury—it’s an integral part of business success that influences everything from employee retention and engagement to overall satisfaction and feelings of safety.

Actually building that culture takes time and intention. This guide provides actionable strategies and insights on how to build company culture, no matter your industry or organizational size.

What is company culture? 

A company’s culture is the values, attitudes, and behaviors that guide the organization. It sets employee expectations for interacting with each other, performing their responsibilities, and interacting with the organization as a whole.

Company practices and employee behavior have a cause-and-effect relationship: 

• If a company fuels competition and only rewards top performers, it is building a culture of hustle and grind that will lead to stress, burnout, and dissatisfaction.
• If a company has executives who regularly hold meetings to discuss company decisions, financial health, and direction, it is building a culture of transparency and trust.

Obviously, organizational culture building is more complicated than two simple examples can show, but hopefully these help you visualize the impact culture can have. 

Here’s what it really comes down to: A company that defines and recognizes value-aligned behavior is building a company culture of alignment, integrity, and sustainable achievement. If you can tap into this, you’re building a strong company culture.

The importance of a strong company culture

Company culture is the backdrop, the setting of all other organizational actions and outcomes. The data shows the impact a strong connection to company culture can have: 

• When employees feel connected to their culture, they’re 4.3X more likely to be engaged.
• Employees are 62% less likely to feel burned out when connected to company culture.
• Having a healthy culture is 10X “more important to employees than pay.”
• UMass Global states “seven in ten workers have turned down or would turn down a job opportunity because of poor culture fit, and nearly half have already quit a job over bad culture.”
• McKinsey research shows that companies with strong work cultures enjoy a 60% higher return to shareholders than companies in the median quartile for culture.

A strong company culture leads to employees who are more engaged, more satisfied, less stressed, and overall happier. Plus, it leads to greater performance and financial returns. (See more key statistics about the importance of recognition.)

That right there is why building organizational culture is a must—but how exactly do you do it? We’ll talk through how to build a positive work culture next.

7 strategies for building positive workplace culture

Recognition reinforces company culture, but it doesn’t create it alone. When thinking about how to improve company culture, pair your recognition program with these other strategies for a positive workplace culture that lasts.

1. Define your driving values

Organizational values should shape how work gets done. If your company doesn’t have accurate or effective values yet, take the time to identify the fundamental principles and beliefs that guide your organization. 

Identify three to five values that you want to guide decisions at your company, things like integrity, innovation, or customer service. Values should be tied to observable behaviors to make them concrete and actionable. 

Define what each value looks like in day-to-day work, then use them as the foundation for recognition, feedback, and performance conversations. 

See some examples of how to develop and integrate effective core values.

2. Implement recognition programs 

Feeling recognized is key to a healthy culture. It makes these cultural drivers visible, and it turns them into examples other people can follow. It’s a deepening spiral: One person adheres to company culture, the desired behavior is recognized, and they and others can repeat actions that add up to build culture over time.

But how do you actually create a positive work environment and build recognition into workflows at your company? 

• Find a dedicated recognition platform. A digital platform makes creating, implementing, and running incentive programs easier, with more strategic outcomes. Awardco supports peer recognition, manager recognition, nominations, service awards, incentives, and other recognition motions in one platform—see how other vendors stack up.
  
• Tie recognition to values. Values-based recognition ties each shoutout or reward to the company mission, which makes recognition a true driver of culture rather than simply a feel-good moment (though of course, part of the benefit is also feeling good!).
  
• Empower peer-to-peer recognition. Employees recognizing their peers is a powerful tool to spread appreciation. Set up specific tools employees can use for peer recognition, and make it easy for them to follow through.
  
• Reinforce manager-led recognition. Leaders are the drivers of every initiative in a company; recognition and culture are no different. Help them set the standard for other employees to follow.
  
• Make milestones special. Birthdays and service anniversaries are the perfect place to start recognizing because everyone has them. Make each year’s milestones special for each employee, with personalized and meaningful gifts.‍
  
• Use incentives to boost productivity. Recognize hard workers and increase motivation with incentives. There are dozens of different incentive ideas you can create, from sales incentives to wellness incentives or safety incentives.

3. Lead by example, from the top down

No matter what leaders think, building company culture is a top-down exercise. If employees see their leaders working hard, supporting those around them, and being honest with the company, they’ll emulate those behaviors.

However, when stated values and leadership behavior consistently conflict, trust can erode, and employees may not stick around.

Leaders should be company culture examples, modeling the culture and recognizing the behaviors they want others to repeat. When leaders participate in recognition programs, it creates visible buy-in and helps efforts feel authentic rather than performative. 

Host training meetings with your leaders so that they learn how to participate in your recognition programs and understand which behaviors strengthen the culture you want to create. 

4. Gather feedback and actually act on it

In order to know how to improve your culture, you have to know where it isn’t meeting expectations. Gather feedback through surveys, meetings, or data like turnover rates. 

Then put those insights to work: 

• Share what was heard to validate the communication loop. 
• Prioritize just a couple of action areas to make real impact right away. 
• Communicate what will change so everyone knows what will happen next. 
• Use recognition and incentives to reinforce these new priorities.
  

The more knowledge you have of your culture and where you can improve, the easier it is to build a culture that will reach all of your people. Putting feedback into action builds trust and shapes the kind of culture your people want to see.

5. Give everyone clarity and purpose

If organizations doubled the proportion of employees who strongly agree that their mission or purpose makes their job important, business units could realize these outcome improvements: 34% lower absenteeism, 41% fewer safety incidents, and a 19% increase in work quality. But how do you build a culture where everyone feels purposeful and valuable?

• Clarify organizational purpose and frequently communicate how each employee’s work contributes to that.
• Create learning and development opportunities so employees feel they’re moving somewhere in their careers.
• Allow employees to influence decision-making and company direction.

Most importantly, recognize the good work people do and articulate why it aligns with company values. This connects individual contribution to the greater mission for concrete reinforcement of purpose.

6. Promote diversity, inclusivity, and safety

Create an inclusive workplace where people of all backgrounds are welcome and supported. Never ever ignore or take complaints about harassment lightly, and do all you can to ensure everyone feels safe at work. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recommends having a clear anti-harassment policy, accessible reporting processes, prompt investigation, appropriate corrective action, and protection against retaliation. 

A great way to increase diversity and inclusivity is to start from your hiring process: Work to avoid unconscious bias when hiring, and take advantage of remote opportunities to reach diverse talent.

7. Prioritize flexibility and belonging across all work environments

Physical work locations look different depending on your industry and organization, and company culture for remote teams vs. onsite or frontline teams can look different. In industries such as healthcare, education, food service, and manufacturing, building culture can often be especially difficult. How do you spread culture to employees who are most often away from a computer, dealing with customers, or on the manufacturing floor?

Flexibility helps employees strike a good work-life balance no matter their environment. When possible, consider these workplace culture ideas:

• Flexible schedules or work arrangements
• Remote-friendly benefits and recognition tactics
• Mobile or offline recognition for frontline and deskless teams
• External recognition for customer-facing teams 
• Professional development opportunities for future mobility

This type of flexibility shows that you trust employees and care about their personal lives in addition to their work time. 

How to measure company culture

When leadership invests in something like company culture strategies, they want to see tangible results. You can often feel the results in attitudes and behavior. But how do you show concrete evidence that your culture-building efforts are working? 

The right mix of employee feedback, HR data, and recognition activity can offer proof that your culture efforts are actually changing the employee experience. Include metrics such as: 

• Employee survey results. Use pulse surveys and engagement questions to track belonging, trust in leadership, psychological safety, manager support, and whether employees feel valued. Gather data over time to track improvements or stagnation. 
• Program participation. Look at utilization of programs like recognition to see who is engaged. Track how often employees are recognized, who is giving and receiving the recognition. High participation can indicate strong program adoption; compare it with surveys, retention, and other HR metrics to understand broader engagement and culture. 
• Retention and turnover trends. Consider changes in voluntary turnover, regrettable attrition, and retention. Pay particular attention to what happens to high performers at your organization. When high performers consistently leave after short stints, that’s a sign that culture could be improved.
  
• Absenteeism and safety data. Gather information on unexcused, unplanned, or frequent absences. Disengaged employees are more likely to frequently miss work. In addition, look at adherence to safety policies and instances of noncompliance or injury. A strong company culture promotes safety for everyone.
  
• Employee development. A healthy company culture should have room for internal mobility and development. The organization should support growth, not just satisfaction. Look at how often employees have a chance at a promotion or other training opportunity that supports long-term growth.
  
• Individual and qualitative feedback. Gather information from individuals using manager 1:1 meetings, exit interviews, and stay interviews to understand the why behind your data. Confidential open-ended surveys may get more candid feedback from those struggling with current cultural norms. 

Recognition data is especially useful because it shows culture in motion. You can track program participation for your recognition and reward systems to see who is engaged. Awardco generates automated insights based on recognition program participation at your organization. 

Look at which employees participate and whether it happens across teams, roles, and locations. If employees are consistently recognizing values-based behaviors, that is a strong signal that culture is being reinforced—not just communicated.

See results from other companies that have measured the impact of recognition with Awardco, and take a look at 26 employee engagement ideas.

Building culture through consistent action

People spend a lot of their lives at work—it’s important to make that time enjoyable for them. That’s where company culture comes in. By building a culture that recognizes them, makes them feel safe, allows them to have fun, and shows them support and trust, organizations will have employees who enjoy the work they do and strive to do it to the best of their ability.

Ready to transform your company culture? Schedule a demo today.

Frequently asked questions

What is the first step to building company culture? 

The first step of building company culture is defining desired values and behaviors—and then reinforcing them. Outline clear written values so that everyone understands what excellent culture at your organization should look like. Then build systems that reinforce that culture and related behaviors consistently: leadership communication, feedback systems, and recognition programs.

How does employee recognition improve company culture? 

Recognition improves company culture by making certain behaviors visible and desirable. When employees are recognized for living company values or improving their performance, they are more motivated to continue those behaviors. When others see company values in action, the values become easier to understand and repeat. 

What are examples of strong company culture or values? 

Strong company cultures include those that value—and enact—transparency, safety, innovation, and inclusion. Companies may prioritize recognition, learning, accountability, or customer service. The strongest cultures connect their stated values to everyday behaviors, which aligns consistent actions with intentions.

How long does it take to improve company culture? 

Initial improvement can happen in just a matter of months. You can see early signals through survey feedback or recognition program participation. Deep culture change takes longer, with consistent effort over time. Lasting changes require ongoing reinforcement from leadership and contributors at every level.