Use your website to broadcast your culture

Company culture is the bedrock of any successful organization. Just ask Google or Netflix – two trailblazing organizations that realize employee freedom doesn’t stifle achievements…it fosters them.

Investing in your people is an investment in the continued success and longevity of your business. But how do you attract the right talent, and what role does a culture page play in reinforcing your mission and overarching strategy? Here’s our take, along with how we foster (and share!) our company culture.

What is Company Culture?

Let’s start with the basics. Corporate culture encompasses the shared values and beliefs that help shape employees’ (and clients’!) actions and perceptions. Put simply, it’s your answer to the question, “What defines you?”

There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ formula for creating your organization’s culture. Instead, it comes down to clear communication and hiring individuals who are both qualified and a good fit for your organization.

Don’t be fooled, company culture isn’t “feel-good” fluff. Establishing a culture and community within your business helps prevent disengaged employees and subsequently high turnover rates. Put differently, having the wrong culture will eat away at your bottom line.

Highlighting Your Company Culture: Cue Your Culture Page

We live in a hyper-digitized world, one where showing the human side of your company online is more important than ever. Transparency and authenticity reign supreme, and trust is one of the most valuable commodities you can secure. So how do you fit all of this on your careers page?

Enter: the company culture page.

All of the best organizations have them, and chances are you’ve seen your fair share of culture pages without even realizing it. Culture pages go one step further than saying who you are, what you do, and what you’re looking for. They highlight why your company is a great place to work, and show the type of people who thrive in your corporate environment. The culture page can be its own thing, or it replaces the about page, or it replaces the careers page (or both the about and careers page). It doesn’t matter what you call it, only that it focuses on what it’s like to be a part of your team.

What to Include:

Instead of prioritizing the size of your organization or the long boring story about when and how the company was formed, consider featuring testimonials from your employees, organizations you are affiliated with, and awards you’ve won on your culture page. People don’t want sterile facts about you, they want the full picture about what life at your company is actually like.

On our company culture page, it was important for us to communicate our core values and how they have helped shape and grow North Street. We started with a clearly-defined mission statement that outlines who we are and what keeps us up at night: we’re passionate about engineering the successful transformation of financial services, B2B, corporate, and non-profit organizations through the creation of truly exceptional brand identities.

Our location in New York’s dynamic Seaport District has also played a major role in creating our sense of identity and place. One of New York’s oldest neighborhoods, the Seaport District serves as a beacon for the future while simultaneously hailing New York’s rich history and past. (Not to mention that it’s got a pretty stellar view of the Brooklyn Bridge and city skyline!)

If you look closely, you’ll also see that our culture page contains other hidden gems:

• Photos/videos of our team working from home
• Snippets from Slack threads
• Our favorite tracks from the shared North Street playlist
• Photos of our office space and surrounding neighborhoods
• Company SWAG and gifts

As you might have already gathered, photography on your company culture page is an absolute must. We supplement all text with engaging and immersive video and photo content — and candid is always better! People would rather see how your team interacts, rather than a staged photo with team members staring directly at the camera. Some great examples of this can be found here: https://getbento.com/company/

Some companies also opt for featuring employee benefits prior to listing open jobs. This reorganization emphasizes the experience of joining your team and what a potential employee would gain from your organization (rather than placing focus on an impersonal job page with generic qualifications).

If your company has made a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, that definitely has a place on your culture page. Even if you have a dedicated DEI page elsewhere on your website, an intro to your position on DEI is critical. If you’re unfamiliar with DEI, this page does a good job of summarizing how big corporations are approaching it: https://hines.com/about/diversity-and-inclusion

To Sum It Up

It’s no secret that the hiring market is gradually becoming more and more competitive, and attracting the right talent isn’t always easy. While the main priority of a culture page is to show open roles for prospective employees, it’s also valuable to paint a larger picture about what life at your company is like. When your company culture is healthy, your team is healthy. You can tell, and chances are your clients can tell, too.

If you’re looking for more useful tips on how to give your website a more personal revamp, check out: Does Your Website Make You Feel Real?