There are certain terms that get thrown around in the business world that sometimes feel like nothing more than astro metaphysical feel-good terms that no one really pays attention to. For example phrases like mission statement, vision, or bleeding edge all feel good to say, buy what do they really bring to an organization. The one term I would not throw in that astro-metaphysical bucket is COMPANY CULTURE.
In regards to company culture, I’ve definitely learned a couple of things about it over the 18 years of being in the security guard industry. First and foremost, I’ve learned that culture is important in attracting and retaining great officers; and second, it is a hard to establish and maintain.
So why culture is it so important when it comes to your officers?
Culture should be important to you and your company because it sets your officers’ attitudes and expectations of how things should happen when you are not around. For example, if your company culture prioritizes personal responsibility, your individual officers will be more likely to be focused on being more responsible and accountable in your absence. Your company culture sit on your officers’ shoulders like a little angel when their supervisors’ aren’t around.
Additionally, when your employees understand what is expected of them, it is easier to retain the good employees and hurry the bad ones to the exit. So you might ask why would your company culture expedite the expulsion of bad officers? It’s because your good employees know what’s expected of them and when someone is stepping outside of those cultural boundaries the word will eventually get back to you or your management team. If you and/or your field supervisors have good relationships with your frontline staff, the faster that information will bubble to the surface.
Lastly, like any other job, when your employees enjoy the culture and atmosphere at your company, they’ll recruit other good employees to join your organization. It amazed me the first time I was in an interview and the candidate said that he’d talked to a few of my officers and they all told him that he needed to try to get hired. To me, it was confirmation that we were doing something right with our company culture.
How do you establish good company culture?
In terms of creating and maintaining your company culture, it’s not something that you can put on paper and expect it to catch on. Culture is all about the top people in your organization committing to what your culture will be and living it day in day out…forever.
Personally speaking, when I had my security guard company, our culture was all about taking care of your team. With each site supervisor that we had, we always pushed them to take care of their team at the site. I wanted each team at each site to act like a family. Over time, the culture and sentiment caught on and I started to hear stories about the things that officers and supervisors were doing to support one another and the stories that I heard were truly heartwarming.
In one instance we had two single moms who moved in together to ensure that they could cover each other for child care. One worked days and the other worked nights so it worked for them. I realize that they could have just done it out of necessity, but I’m hoping that it had a little something to do with our company culture.
Conclusion
These are just a handful of reasons why company culture is important, but they’re a good starting point to get you thinking about what your own organization culture. The culture that you establish at your company should fit your vision of what will make your employees and your company successful. Having the proper momentum, culture, and teamwork will create the opportunity to build a legacy that you will be proud to look back on in the coming years.
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By Courtney Sparkman
OfficerReports.com is a software company that provides security guard companies with an easy way to monitor their officers, better manage their operations, and win new business. Take a tour of our software to see how we combine Electronic Reporting, Real-Time GPS based Tour Tracking, and GPS based Clock In and Out into one easy-to-use platform.
