7 Company Culture Ideas to Improve Your CPA Firm Culture

Running a successful company is more than just numbers and marketing. Employees help make things run like a well-oiled machine. These are your biggest advocates and most valuable players.

In fact, employees who say they have a strong sense of purpose often work for the most successful businesses. This is where a strong company culture can actually improve your bottom line.

Teamwork makes the dream work, as the saying goes. Crafting that ideal team culture is going to require a little introspection. Managing a team is part leadership and part comradery.

You have to formulate company culture ideas naturally and tactfully. Here are a few examples of what you should focus on:

Empathy Counts

Try not to chastise workers for every metric missed. Make available alternatives for things like scheduling, earning bonuses, and team responsibilities. Don't grind down your workforce before you are able to achieve anything that resembles consistency. This can be a vicious cycle of frustration and mistrust among management and staff.

Instead, put down the pen and try to understand your team beyond the numbers. They will feel more comfortable with being open about their thoughts and concerns, making your job easier.

Believe in a Set of Values

What we mean by this is having a set of core values, morals, and policies that can never be misinterpreted, misconstrued, or forgotten. This goes hand-in-hand with company culture, it needs to be more than just a phrase. There are common values that healthy societies apply universally, so why should businesses be exempt?

But, these values don't need to all be super-serious moral platitudes, you can make it a rule to never sit at work angry, sad, depressed, or stressed out. Joking and laughing are encouraged, leadership isn't sacred and can be taken at any time. Belief in the company is more vital than servitude and obedience.

Listen and Share Data

Management is a detached word to many workers because all they do is churn data, bark commands, shake hands, rinse, and repeat. That's true even for nice managers that are approachable. What would really help the team collaborate more is for managers to communicate clearly.

This means having a strong line of communication--there needs to be a reliable way to access the latest data, share ideas, and instantly reply with each other, including upper management. Going through proper channels shouldn't mean having to wait weeks for a reply to employee concerns.

Yes, upper-level management is busy, but there need to be better lines of communication. In fact, having a separate email or a separate channel may reduce the likelihood of messages gone unread.

Encourage Outstanding Employees

A great employee is invaluable to the overall success of your team. They provide the motivation and morale that uplifts others who are struggling. They can give you a performance boost, despite how slow or how mediocre your numbers look in the middle of a bad week.

If you do not cherish your best employees, they will find someone who does.

In order to encourage more of this behavior, you should find ways to highlight and positively reinforce it publically, so that both the model employee and his colleagues know that you appreciate it beyond a business level.

Make It Personal

Don't just email or print out "award certificates" whenever an employee hits a certain metric. Be sincere by sitting them down, buying them a coffee, and giving them props for all their hard work and how it made your day better. Employees, especially outstanding ones, can tell when you're just going through the motions.

An employee single-handedly made your sales goals or discovered a product breakthrough? Okay, get up and announce it to the whole office. Be light-hearted about it, but also stand up and get everyone together to cheer them on. Throw a party, if the energy matches the deed.

There shouldn't be one employee in the office during that moment that isn't excited. They should also be thinking about what they need to do to get that kind of reception. Beware of jealousy, it can ruin a company's culture.

Be Open about the Business

Don't have your best employees chasing metrics without any idea as to how their work directly affects the company. Your employees will become more motivated if they understand how much their work really matters. Give out shares of the company, if you feel the standard pay raise doesn't really do their work justice. Honest work is the best work.

Cultivate associations and use aptitude. Professional development sessions can make ranked staff feel that their experience is esteemed while helping more junior workers get their mojo. The less you are handing down orders from above, the more you're able to gauge company commitment.

Grant More Freedom

In the event that your star employees really impact productivity numbers (in a good way), consider permitting them to work more adaptable calendars or to work from home some portion of their time. Strategic scheduling and working from home can be among the best worker benefits with the most reduced expenses for businesses.

Benefits don't have to end with just monetary or insurance incentives. There are some company culture ideas that really drum up excitement. Read more now on how to motivate employees without money.

Consider your working environment conditions, too. Office space, furniture, vending machines, and office games all contribute to feelings of luxury. Office culture affects workers' resolve and execution.

Stagnation and confinement can quickly breed contempt and disconnect.

More Company Culture Ideas

A team that is working harmoniously together is one that does more and hesitates less. One that doesn't need to question the integrity of any member of the team. Do you want one of those work environments that people line up to work at? You have to do more than install a slide next to the escalator (no offense, Google).

For an excellent example of company culture ideas that work, check out CPA Ontario. This is a company that has no room for error in their industry, yet enjoys a healthy company culture. There is always room for improving the company culture. It's never too late to find that perfect company harmony.