When a crisis happens and times are tough it can be easy to lose focus on the importance of supporting and growing a strong corporate culture. The vision for the company can become blurred due to sudden change, communication can reduce due to higher workloads, the work environment can become dispersed due to remote working, and individual autonomy can be sacrificed for company-wide decisions.

Although sudden changes to strategy and adjustment of priorities may be required, it is important not to lose focus on supporting the strong culture that took time and great effort to build. As you know, your people hold the solutions to the problems your business is facing - and you will be trusting them to turn things around.

A neglected culture increases turnover rates, decreases employee productivity and reduces your chance of being able to attract the best talent - exactly what you don’t need when your organisation is in the midst of a tricky period.

It's important to always maintain your corporate culture, however bad the situation is.

Beyond encouraging your employees to thrive and stay with you, your culture is also important when it comes to hiring talent. It can contribute towards you attracting a diverse range of professionals who will help your business navigate this difficult landscape.

Increasingly, job seekers are making the final decision of whether or not to accept an offer based on the company's culture and if they see themselves 'fitting in'.

In order to keep hold of and hire the best talent, your company culture needs to be enticing and exciting to job seekers and inspiring for existing employees so that it drives them to want to work as hard as possible for the company.

What is corporate culture?

Defining corporate culture is difficult and measuring it is even harder. In short, it’s the values, beliefs and attitudes that guide actions within a company.

Having a concrete vision of what you want your organisation to represent makes it a better place to work; your cultural dynamic is of utmost importance to employees’ happiness. It increases your appeal to clients as well!

Four key components of corporate culture are:

• Values - Your values sit at the core of your corporate culture. They offer guidance, shaping what your employees focus on in the workplace and provide direction on how they should do their jobs on a day-to-day basis.
• Employees - Your people have to embrace your values. They are the ones living and breathing your culture. Every single employee should be willing to support the culture - a key consideration when you’re hiring new talent.
• Environment - The workspace plays a big role in shaping a culture. Now, with remote working much more prevalent, the goalposts have shifted slightly. But it is still your duty as an employer to help those remote workers create an office environment at home (or wherever they are based) which is aligned to your culture.
• Actions - Demonstrating how your business embodies its values is crucial. Relationships with suppliers, customers, employees and the wider community should all reflect your core values. Actions speak louder than words!

Beyond employee wellbeing, company culture has also been shown to have a tremendous effect on companies' financial performances. Managing workplace culture is a critical business function nowadays and in summary, a strong and positive workplace culture is believed to:

• Promote innovation within teams
• Enhance a firm’s reputation by creating a positive public perception
• Help with the attraction and retention of highly qualified talent
• Reduce the risk of misconduct from employees

Ways to maintain a strong company culture during tough times So you know what corporate culture is and a bit about why it's so important to preserve, but how can you go about it?