What is Company Culture?

Company culture should be a vital factor in deciding whether or not to work for a company. It’s the culmination of the rules and regulations set by the company, employee attitudes about the company, the way the employees and management treat each other, and the genuine diversity and inclusion efforts of the company. There are tangible and intangible ways to determine what a company’s culture is like.

Here are four things you can do: read the company’s mission statement, read reviews of the business on job websites, ask questions in the interview, trust your gut. The company’s mission statement should tell you what the company stands for and who it serves if anyone. Online reviews aren’t always reliable, and you should take the most extreme reviews with a grain of salt, but they can give you insight that you wouldn’t be able to get otherwise. Interviewers tend to make the company look and sound better than it is, so reading reviews and asking the right questions about the work environment is crucial. Finally, trust your gut. Look at how people treat the administrative assistants and custodians while you’re there if you can. If they ignore them, the office might be a bit uppity and hierarchical, but if everyone is genuinely kind to each other, it could probably be more down to earth. In your interview, when you ask about the work environment, read the interviewer’s nonverbal language. If they’re uncomfortable or hesitate to find the redeeming qualities of their company, that should give you pause, and you’ll need to consider everything you’ve read and seen before making a final decision.

Take these into consideration, and good luck with your job searches!

Additional Reading:

The Muse – Should You Believe Company Reviews