Contributed by Dale Williams, the owner of , a travel nurse and allied health company based in Omaha, Nebraska.
A strong corporate culture is the cornerstone of our employee recruitment and retention. It has led to major growth over the past two years. As rewarding as that growth has been, it has also led to some struggles as far as maintaining the corporate culture that got us to this point. Building this culture has involved two major components:
Hire the right kind of people
Hiring the right people begins with a careful evaluation and selection process that involves at least two interviews for every position. After a manager and a team member interview the prospective employees, the other owner and I interview them ourselves. This ensures that we are always hiring people who want to be empowered at work and who fit our company’s culture.
Build a culture that empowers and excites staff
The second part of our approach is to build a culture that makes our employees excited about coming to work. We do this by knowing as owners and managers that our number one customer is actually our own employees. Over the years we have implemented several programs that have reflected this belief. Some of the things we do are what many smart companies are already doing; things like casual dress when we hit our weekly goals, a fun break room with a Foosball table and pinball machine, and employee-of-the-month awards.