If your motto is ‘money is everything’, and money is the glue that holds everyone together in your team and your business, then I wish you the best of luck.
In my experience, culture is everything.
When you have a team with more than one person, you need a type of glue to keep people together; to keep managers, team members, suppliers and customers aligned, to keep the business successful and growing.
Culture is the answer, and trust is the key
A strong workplace culture is created by a group of people who choose to work with a business they trust, a business that inspires and challenges them, that treats them fairly and with respect but doesn’t take itself too seriously, a business that celebrates their successes and supports them in tough times, that exists to make a difference in the world and have some fun along the way.
A strong workplace culture is created when people share a common purpose and support each other to bring that purpose to life.
The strongest workplace cultures can survive the tough times. Because tough times do happen. Global financial crises arrive. Economies slow down. Floods and earthquakes hit. Clients are lost. And, although hopefully not in your business or mine, people die at work.
Bad stuff will happen
When bad stuff happens, do you want a group of people on your team who only know the good times? A culture that’s only been created since you started giving away more perks than the competition? You certainly don’t!
It’s in the tough times the people who choose to be part of a strong culture individually ask "what can I do to help?", and show that together "we can do it."
Culture is tested in the tough times
Team members who are only in your business because of the perks are probably not who you want to be working with.
When the going gets tough, people attracted to a business with a culture built on perks often look for the door: ‘I’m outta here’! They'll often head for their next job and look for a business riding a rising tide of success and perks.
Like it or not, a major disaster or 'black swan' event will hit at some point. Not if, but when. Will perks matter then?
What are your thoughts: Is it perks or purpose that build the foundations of a truly great place to work?