1. Productivity: It's well documented that happy employees are productive employees. Creating a culture that encourages participation and buy-in will increase output.
2. Lower costs: Hirings and separations are expensive. Hanging on to good employees brings these costs way down. Also, companies with positive cultures tend to have fewer employee lawsuits, lower worker's-compensation costs and more satisfied customers.
3. Balanced resources: Time and money, two resources businesses never have enough of, must be consumed judiciously. By defining its culture, a company is setting up de facto defaults for how these two rare resources are to be used.

Here are some steps you can take to help you define your company's culture:

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Tips & Tactics
Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• If you think company culture is not important, consider that respected business groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce link a positive culture to high retention and successful recruiting.
• When designing your office, consider how necessary collaboration is. If your staff is primarily sales and is out with clients most of time, you may not need as much collaboration space as a research-based company.
• Design a benefits package that reflects your company culture. If "work/life balance" is an important part of your culture, for instance, consider extended paid time off for maternity and medical leaves and/or flexible hours.
• Don't overvalue company culture when it comes to assessing job candidates. If you have a list of eight attributes that support your culture, and the candidate meets five but has superior experience and skills, he or she probably is worth hiring. Think about how the person will fit into the balance of employees within the culture.